When we were getting the refusal
for this permit application,
we had a conversation with planning
about this specifically.
It's a refusal I don't know if I've seen before,
but we understood that we were getting this refusal.
There would be some sort of oversight by PICO
on where these meters would go
and we would fulfill our obligation
to screen those meters the best we could.
Here is a site plan that you can see here.
The project includes five one-bed, one-bath units on the first floor.
Those are all ADA compliant.
There are, in addition to that, there are two-bed, one-and-a-half-bath units, five of those, plus the three-bedroom, two-bath flat, which is type A.
Floor plans are here, but we have four different types of floor plans in this proposal, the three bedroom flat that type a unit is all the way to the left.
The one bedroom flat is in the middle, and then the two bedroom townhome which you've seen in the previous presentations is all the way to the right.
We would agree to trash stored in the rear for the units which have access to the rear yards and trash stored in the unit for the units that do not that are above.
and we would also agree to commercial trash pickup at this location there is a small basement here
but we would all we would agree to proviso for no basement living it's it's unfinished i believe
just for utilities um with with that oh here's your three-bedroom townhouse
this is the largest sort of bi-level townhouse in the in the project
this is above above the three-bedroom flat i believe
the application for appeal and just getting to that tax clearance certificate at the end of
my packet and then i'll ask my client to adopt my testimony
why don't we do that okay why could you please state your name again you've already been sworn
please proceed counsel lindsey did you hear my testimony today yes and was it true and correct
yes and you adopted as your own i do and can you just uh elaborate on my reference to the
the affordability requirement and why um it was important for this site to be designed
It was important for this site to be designed this way to help you meet that affordability requirement and why that meeting that makes this whole, you know, site scattered site project why meeting that percentage is necessary to make this whole thing happen.
this way to help you meet that affordability
Yes. So in addition to Penrose supporting promoting universal design across all of our developments, there is an accessibility requirement by PHFA to have 10% of the units accessible in a neighborhood context where we are trying to restore the history and the design history of this neighborhood.
it is challenging to do when historically townhomes and brownstones in Philadelphia
have stoops and stairs. So in an effort to meet our accessibility requirement,
provide housing for all people, including people who require universal design,
we are able to provide the accessible units within the flats on this site.
Okay. Steve, do you have any questions?
um there was a pocket park at this location is that correct
i believe that's what the neighbor refers to it as yes right and you are removing it you are you
are taking that park and making it into housing we are building housing on this site so there
will no longer be an open space correct and are you creating an open space somewhere else in the
neighborhood for that penrose is not as part of this project but the housing authority is
throughout the neighborhood creating pocket different pocket parks which i can't speak to but
i believe a representative can but you're not suggesting that it's in the in the immediate
vicinity of this location are you penrose is does not have a pocket park within the development of
this project or within a few like square feet no okay um did you as part of the planning for this
project can confer with the community about the pocket park i'm gonna object we didn't have the
opportunity to confer with the community about any well she could just let her answer that if
she didn't she didn't i mean or she did she did whatever you know we we heard the community's
concerns about the pocket park um but as as mr hampson from pha expressed we've made several
iterations um to accommodate community feedback to the to the overall development can you can
you summarize for us what the concerns were from the community about the lack of the part the
pocket park um i believe as miss cummings has stated they would like to have see the packet
park remain do you understand why i have heard there are reasons yes could you state those what
reasons i feel like miss cummings has put her reasons on the record i'm not sure why they've
been stated several times yeah uh this is coming to taste that but if you know what they were just
just say yeah yeah i i believe miss cummings would like to maintain green space within the community
Are you aware of the benefits of green space to communities?
And in other projects that Penrose has, do you incorporate green space into your residential projects?
We have.
And is that an amenity that you like to use to attract tenants into your projects?
When we are able to incorporate it, we do.
so did you did you anything to try to reconfigure this project so that you could maintain the open
space again we responded to an rfp where the sites were outlined and we responded to that
and developed a project around the criteria of the rfp okay i have no question thank you very much
is the um do you have do you want to present anything for this this particular one yes i
I believe my client does.
I just know that that pocket park that's been there for many, many years is providing a very cooling and oxygenated space for people who live in that hundred.
Several of our neighbors, one who is actually here, can speak for herself, has health challenges with breathing.
and the non-consideration of that is causing harm to her health.
There are several people that removing that park
will cause harm to their health, and why is that okay?
There's a lot of other locations in and around that boundary
that you could put 11 units.
That's a full tree canopy pocket point.
It was done and is a part of the Model Cities Urban Renewal
It's probably even protected, but there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to.
It's probably even protected, but there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to protect the law here
or abide by the law here to even just investigate whether or not they can even take the farm.
It's already been through eminent domain to create the recreation space that it presently is.
And our families need it to survive.
They need it to live.
But that doesn't seem to be anyone's concern here, especially with all of the other like you could so many open spaces that they could put 11 units on this within that same proximity.
And I also just want to say that people go back and forth about this affordability that it's okay to put the health, welfare, and safety of our elders at jeopardy just so that we can have 11 density concrete units over allowing them to have open space, play space, which it was created for.
and many of the what mr hampson or hampton whatever whoever was speaking what they're
talking about is is not the neighborhood that they want to drop these 57 units in
the neighborhood that they want to drop these 57 units in is not 33rd street and it's not
anything compared to the outcome that this type of housing is going to bring for their community
It's very different. This is this is same socioeconomic group of people that cannot lift each other up.
The only outcome that you're going to get from it is the outcome that we presently have, which all of the studies and research that you could go on any Google.
I'm going to object. All right. All right. So. Well, I, I, I believe that what she's stating is I hear what she said.
So it's not right that the presentation process for this, for all of those units, was opposed by that community.
And it was not that...
I'm going to object as well.
It was not that Strawberry Mansion...
She's saying that there was some decision made by the community that would be hearsay, and it's actually factually incorrect anyway.
It can't be hearsay because she's a community leader and she's at the meetings.
So, so, um, Mr. Nocklipson disagrees with her perception of it, but continue your testimony.
I was in attendance. I'm not, it's not hearsay. It's not hearsay. But we need to be able to save
at the minimum of this many units and putting that many people onto a corridor, at the minimum,
these people should be able to save an open space area that was created for them to do so.
And I don't think that the senator who wants to support this program would say that we should
have a hardship of health created for the residents of that hundred block. There's several
members of that hundred block who are on oxygen, who use the pocket park, who appreciate the
cooling that comes from the pocket park. Sometimes that's the only wall they can stand on. When they
have to go from one square block of a space to another, they can hold onto the wall. They can
stand under the tree. That's a full canopy. It's not like any other thing you're going to create
would be comparing to what they already have. You can't because those would be new trees.
they will be smaller and they wouldn't provide the full canopy shading and or oxygen i think we
understand your position yeah but but you're pushing everything through and a lot of people
are going to push things through i'm trying to make decisions on what i think is good for everyone
so uh well it's not easy to take oxygen um steve do you have anything else i think we have someone
here who wants to testify about about her health issues did she already testify no okay yeah she
already okay oh sorry but no no no you don't have to be sorry is there anyone in the audience
who has any input is there anyone in the first audience who um has comments that has not uh
been made yet yes sir i have greg kemsen with the hand raised all right greg
Greg? Yes, sir.
So, Greg, I'm going to I'm going to tell you that I've told everybody else if you have something new to offer, please do it.
But if not, I don't want you to read anything.
Gotcha. Will do. So I just wanted to address the one comment that is PHA building parks.
PHA is funding and working with all the family CDC to do a park at the full block.
and working with all the family CDC to do a park at the full block at 27th and York that is a vacant
lot and we are saving most of the mature trees on that lot but that will be an open space. PHA is
also building an open space and top lot at 28th and York as a part of another development that
we're doing there. All right thank you Brian. Do you have a question? I do Mr Hampson. Aren't you
talking about locations that are three four blocks away from from this location uh the question was
is pha putting any parks in the neighborhood and i addressed it right are they creating parks
right next to this this parcel or is it three or four blocks away i don't know the exact distance
which if it's at 25th street one's at 27th street we don't have parks at every block in this in this
city anywhere, Mr.
Mattress.
Yeah, this is 31st Street.
Mr. Hampson, are you aware
that this
pocket park was created as part of the
model cities program and it was created
via eminent domain reserved
to be a pocket
park for the future? I'm not
aware of that, but I do see how it looks now
and it's in disrepair.
I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I do see how it
looks now and it's in disrepair.
You're
saying that if something is in
disappear you'd rather destroy it than fix it no sir we're trying to give it a blank
and we are adding uh parks to the area and he's adding parks to the area he said steve
right and you're saying they're three four blocks away they seem to be quite a quite a ways away
yeah okay all right anything else steve is there anyone else in the audience
i do not see any further answer in the virtual audience
let's come to the microphone okay all right so so do me a favor no no you don't have to be sorry
about anything state your name name's wendelin fields and miss fields you've already been sworn
in so if you want to you can respond to what mr hampton just said mr hampton is not understanding
that the majority of the people that live in that uh uh that hundredth of of 31st street
have been there a long time a lot of them are elderly I'm not elderly but I am disabled yeah
and for me to have to walk multiple blocks just to get to just to have a little cooling station
just to be able to say hey let me go out here and just sit out here and see what my neighbors are
doing that that's that's a hardship okay and and also he keeps talking about what's going on on
33rd street 33rd street has a full park across the street so whatever goes on 33rd street does
not affect the interior of where we live okay and i really would wish that he would maybe if he
hasn't take the opportunity to come and look at this space this space has been cleaned up this
space has been taken care of and it's not in disrepair it's not in disrepair as he's trying
the south and it's clear on that picture you can see right no no no thank you thank you um
um there's reverend do you want to do the reverend but i want your listen man i want come up to the
come up no come up to the mic come up to the mic um i want your testimony to be something different
and new and not repeated right yeah so just state your name for the record we've been to pass the
time on right right i just want to say none of these parking parks really get cleaned up and
still Mary Parker came into office
and you start to see the future
track people taking care
of these parking parks. Even
when they had the meeting on Monday
outside of the parking park,
they couldn't have it
inside of the parking park because
splinter benches,
overgrown trees, trash,
weeds, and it's a hangout
for a guy in the neighborhood
who solicited money for beer.
That's the only thing the place is being used for.
Thank you. Do you have any questions
for him, Steve? I don't.
All right. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else
in the audience?
Planning commission.
Reverend, I mean,
representative. I called you
Reverend. I'm sorry. Representative.
Just to me
a favor, just state your name.
Keith Harris. Please proceed.
We're witnessing a return.
This is white flight in reverse.
We're witnessing. They call it gentrification.
Right? So
in order to make sure people that look like me stay in the community that is not heavily gentrified
but market rate to be conducive for people that has a marginal uh incomes and let them grow from
there this project is conducive for the community and i just like just