this project is conducive for the community.
And I'd just like just to put that on the record
because anything that opposes this,
and I understand, look,
I commend Attorney Masters and Bonita,
their community involvement.
I get that, right?
But when you look at the whole picture,
if construction isn't done now,
we can't, we're not going to stop
the onslaught of market rate.
Now, 33rd Street, that Mr. Hampson, which I'm very familiar with, Mr. Hampson, from, I own the Triplex on 33rd and Oxford, right?
The new construction from 1609, which is my property, to 33rd and Oxford, all black people bought those properties.
It's by levels, they $207,000, by level, right?
So there, I got a shared space, and they had to pay almost $207,000.
So if we're talking about ownership, and I would love to have ownership there, but can the people that live in the community buy those properties without it being turnkey, without it being subsidized, without PHDC giving a $75,000 stipend for that?
If we don't have that, then people that don't look like me probably the only people that can buy the properties.
Hold it. Do you have any questions, Steve?
I do. Representative Harris, you're talking about homeownership now, the properties you were just talking about that you were praising that give people the ability to have generational wealth and homeownership, right?
That's correct.
Yeah. So we're supporting that too. But why are you supporting projects that are just bringing in tenants without any possibility of generational wealth?
Well, the reason I'm supporting this is because the people that's most likely to rent those properties from Penrose, they're the people that live in the community.
They probably want to leave their parents' home, you know, have a starter home, and then they can grow from there and buy a house.
And we still have a lot of stock in the community.
You know, the baby boomers are aging out, and they're going to have an opportunity to possibly buy those houses.
Like, you know, that people maybe, like, expire or they want to move into senior houses.
There's plenty of housing there.
But for them to have starter homes, to be able to stay in the community, that's why I support this.
Do you, it sounds like you were just kind of making suppositions about that.
Do you know for a fact that there's people who are actually moving into homes as tenants from their family homes?
Yeah, yeah, they do it all the time.
People that live in the community want to stay in the community.
They want to move to Southwest Philly.
They don't want to move in West Philly.
If they can stay in the community that they grew up in,
that's where they want to stay.
They know everybody.
They know the neighbors.
Sure, we have crime in the community.
You know, we have to do something about that as a collective,
as us as committee people and community stakeholders
have to extend their arm, organize better to bring down some of that crime.
Yeah, it's a challenge.
It is a challenge, you know, but but renters, you can't exclude renters from a community.
And then and this is new construction, you know, so they'll get a chance to have a new apartment, new house.
Actually, it's townhouses. Right. Two story townhouses. That's a lot of space.
You know what I mean? And they can go in there and reasonable rent and they can live in there and as long as they want and move out at their leisure.
i have no further okay okay thank you planning commission
amy wood with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the rsa 5 residential single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned the section of
strawberry mansion in 2014 in accord with recommendation from the comprehensive plan
at that time the single-family zoning at the site was left unchanged prior to rezoning in 1967.
The proposal is part of a 55-unit low-income tax credit project and built on a scattered
It proposes the comprehensive plan recommendations to promote affordable housing development.
The proposed variance for not screening the utility meters is not strictly necessary and
inconformance could be accomplished with minor adjustment on the project's design.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed use variance
for multifamily dwelling units,
but deny the proposed variance
for utility screening requirement.
Thank you.
Karen, do we get questions on this one as the board?
For me?
Do we get questions on this one as the board?
I thought we had questions.
I don't think we...
No, go ahead.
You want a question? Go ahead.
I have a few questions, yes.
So a question that I have, and it's probably for Penrose, is for the three flats that are
So a question that I have,
and it's probably for Penelope,
stacked, the upstairs unit, is that accommodating any other type of accessibility?
I'd call on Vera to answer that one for us.
Or the architect, I guess, sure.
I don't know that I needed the architect specifically, but...
Yeah, Ty, the townhomes that are above the accessible flats are not accessible.
I know they're not ADA accessible, but are they at all being considered for hearing or sound impairment?
So there is a 10% requirement for hearing and vision impaired across the development, yes.
And as many units as we were able to are visitable and adaptable.
I understand that for the first-floor units that have to deal with wheelchair accommodation, but I'm asking specifically about hearing and vision impaired because it would require specific treading on the stairwells and it would require specific electric accommodations in the rooms.
And since we only saw sample plans for the second floor, it did not include anything.
Right.
So I was just wondering.
Yeah, we can provide exact floor plans where the hearing and visually impaired units are designated on the site plan, if that would be helpful.
I just wanted you to answer an affirmative, like, yes, there are some in the upstairs units. Okay. And then my second question is about the overall design. So this is a space that typically would have held, let's say, I'll argue five to six single family homes. We're putting back townhome units, but with the double doors, we've sort of eliminated and broken up the porch context of the rest of the street.
and i just wanted to know from a contextual standpoint what was the driving decision to do
that so i would point out that the i don't believe this block you know has a porch on like there's a
property on the corner or at least there was with the i'm looking at the properties contiguously
next to it in atlas on 31st street i mean sorry google maps um have sort of typical porch structure
if you go down 31st street i'm looking at like 250 what is it so six like 25 14 like everything
else down that street so 12 and 12 14 16 those all have the typical porch design for the rest of
that side of the street in fact until you get to the basketball court down the street
yeah i'd ask vera to chime in there
so i can respond this question if you want to yeah please okay so uh we actually made a conscious
effort to provide porches and elevated entrances to maintain the urban fabric of the development
so on everywhere on every side especially when we have the insert buildings into the
abandoned property between buildings
it was
so we did provide
porches and PHA
PHA agreed
to minimize requirements
for the visitability from the front
just because we had to
provide these porches
as you know visitability is required
when it's financed by the federal agencies
so that was
attempt
we have the
Whenever we can, we have visible entrances from here,
whatever is accessible from the street.
That particular lot was the only lot
that pretty much occupies its own place,
but it's not adjacent to other buildings
that has these porches.
So it will not violate the nature of the urban fabric.
So you understand what I'm trying to say?
that is the only opportunity because it's the only one load and I also wanted to add about the
pocket park trust me we all love green spaces I didn't ask about the pocket park to be clear
so yeah there is another pocket park right on the 32nd street that originally was part of this
project and as a response to all these you know comments that uh uh what was removed yes
And then I had a third question. So my third question is, if visibility is going to mainly be focused on having wheelchair access coming through the rear and trash is going to be stored at the rear, and that is also the rear yards, what's the property management plan to sort of, I guess, manage all of that at the rear?
Is that going to be on the Penrose property managers?
Is that going to be on the responsibility of the tenant living in those one-bedroom first-floor units?
It's going to be Penrose property management managing the commercial trash pickup.
But I also wanted to say that the trash collection on that site, it will be actually fenced.
That's right.
it will not be open to the backyard it will defense them to pick up from the opposite side
of the backyards okay i had a question of the architect architect
good steve thought we were on board questions what's that and i thought we were on board
questions steve wants to come back in as a result of apparently uh something the architect said
but um miss kislev um was did you testify that that the that the property that the
pocket park doesn't doesn't abut the the um porches
architect could you hear the question no can you repeat please oh sure was it your testimony that
the that the the parcel that you're developing does not um abut right up to the to the porches
next door i'm talking about specifically that site on 31st street yes it's it's because it's
actually it has open uh open uh opened on the street on three sides well it doesn't impact
any adjacent buildings can you see the the um on the video screen can you see uh this is the google
maps view this is the pocket part here to the oops the buildings our buildings that doesn't
they they do not touch these buildings they're facing the other street that's correct they don't
face the streets that's separating and mr chairman i'd point out that the photos we're looking at are
from july of 2022 okay okay uh i just lost oh this is the back here so you're talking about
the backyard area that there's no so that's a vacant lot that doesn't belong to penrose that
is right in front of you okay um but isn't there an overlay that that requires you to
maintain porches aligned with the porches on the block
i believe that's the case but there's no other properties on our block
you're you're saying that these are not properties anymore those we're not matching the front
of those properties where we have a cumberland street frontage that's the side of the property
of the furthest to the right oh so you're saying that you are that your official address is on a
different portion are are the property frontages 10 of the 11 face cumberland street
which is here correct correct okay because this is where the the longest
portion is that's correct and therefore you're saying you're you do not have to comply with the
based on lni's interpretation we've complied with the overlay so is there a reason why you wouldn't
want to provide a harmonious um streetscape i mean that there's there's nothing else on this
block so we're trying to preserve you know as much space in the rear and and i don't want to
step on various toes but um you know i think that designing them in the way they did maximize the
interior space and maximize the space in the rear are you saying that that the properties
have been torn down that are right next to it?
I'm sorry, I don't know. Are you saying that these properties
have been torn down? I'm not
saying that. I don't know anything about
those properties.
I thought you said that there's no longer properties
that are contingent. On our block face,
on Cumberland Street, from
31st Street to Napa Street, there are no
other properties. Right, but on 31st
Street, there are properties.
Correct. Okay.
okay all right all right any questions more questions from the board
Any more questions
from the board?
planning commission you already taken your position right so number one i want to thank
everybody for staying so long and to thank both sides of this um mi 2025 001305 2500 north 31st
street, I vote yes. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Anyone, my vote is yes. Emily Briscoe, my vote is yes.
Thank you to everyone. We're going to take a five minute break, please.
Would you
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, the water's good.
Andrew, you can take a seat.
um we're back in the room here um
i'm going to read the first case and then ian haggarty's volunteered to read all the cases
in the record because he's such a nice person i don't think it's a volunteer job
so m m i 2025 000 738 1631 south 29th street andrea um could you state your name and spell