on this map or not it should be but maybe this is I don't know when these photographs were taken
but if Mr. Patterson if you could bring your cursor over to Rittenhouse or Haines Street
Mr. Patterson I don't know where Haines Street is on this map I'm not sure what the relevance
of this is what ma'am yeah you seem to be I'm not rambling I didn't say ramble okay
I never even finished what I was going to say.
You're right.
I just want to ask for you to summarize.
And you acknowledge that parking is kind of an issue that every neighborhood has some issues with.
We understand that.
So, Ron, let me ask you again.
If you were to be able to build single family on this lot, how many would be built?
Well, starting with the one house per lot, we can only make one legal lot.
I'm not sure how many we could do in a putt arrangement.
Logan may have looked at that,
but if you're saying what can we do as a matter of right, it would be one.
I'm sorry, I rephrased that.
If it was a putt, you don't know, all right?
I do not know.
Mr. DeSicca, may I continue?
And would they require parking if you were able to do a putt,
regardless of what the number is?
RM1 would require, correct.
Thank you. Ma'am, with all due respect, if you can summarize, we have a number of other people
who want to testify, and we have other cases today. I will. Thank you. Okay, in a few minutes,
you're going to hear from the City Planning Commission. They will present their position
as to the proposed development and may offer a compromise. We understand that, so just tell us
them present. Okay, this compromise position building is based on the rezoning plan that was
adopted by the Planning Commission early 2020, which would designate 15 West Rittenhouse currently
zoned RSA 5 to be rezoned RM 1. However, oh, a public meeting was scheduled for March 23rd,
2020. To introduce, I'm talking about a year ago, to introduce this proposed rezoning plan,
the entire west central Germantown neighbors and the thousands of people, approximately thousands
of people who reside within its boundaries, were welcome to offer comments, concerns, and were told
to take a careful look at specific properties to be rezoned. And I quote from one of their brochures,
quote after the meeting planning commission staff will update the proposal to reflect
community feedback. Mr. Chairman I'm going to check I would we have a planning commission
member here. Yeah I why are we going over what you're telling us we're going to hear from the
planning commission. Well needless to say due to COVID-19 that meeting was indefinitely postponed
and since no public since no public meetings were allowed. As a result west central Germantown
Neighbors and the residents within its boundaries have not yet been allowed, as promised, to have their voices heard and possible changes made.
We as neighbors have already begun identifying the properties that are of concern.
One of these properties is at 15 West Rittenhouse.
It is currently...
You need to speak on your behalf, not for the other members of the community.
She was muted she can unmute herself. Yesterday a complaint was filed with the
Department of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection citing 15 West
Rittenhouse Street as well as the adjoining 5904 through 08 Germantown Avenue. Both of these
properties currently owned by the developer were owned by Gerbron dry cleaners. Gerbron operated
their site on-site dry cleaners. If there's any environmental contamination, we'll be required to
remediate it before we can do it. That'll all be handled at the appropriate time, man. Well, I hope
that the city of Philadelphia, as well as the developers, do their due diligence. They will
do their due diligence they will have to that will be done by the city and the developer
have to. That will be done by the city and the developer.
absolutely when would that be done when and if the board makes a decision to approve this project
and when the the developer is ready to start pulling permits okay well well they've already
pulled some permits the building is to be at 590408 is to be demolished talking about 15 west
Rittenhouse Square. Which is adjacent to the same property. Not relevant. Not relevant. It is
relevant. Okay ma'am I apologize I apologize with all due respect we need to move on to the next
witness. If I could chair um we do have Mr. Richardson from the council person's office
Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Richardson, you're free to unmute yourself.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Richardson.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
You were sworn in earlier, I forget.
Yes, I was.
You are? Okay, you're still on the earth. Thank you.
The councilwoman is joining the community in opposing this project, essentially shoehorning an overly dense multifamily structure into an irregular lot, and she feels that that would be detrimental to the area.
Ron, I do have a question for the mayor, though.
Does he have any affiliation with 5900 through 5904 Germantown Avenue?
uh i normally wouldn't i think it's appropriate to allow that question you can ask it through me
it's i'll ask you mr chair can you yeah ron does your client have any affiliation with
the properties that we just mentioned i do not know mayor would have to answer that i don't
understand what the relevance is but um well the uh i would say i would say that the relevance is
that we are aware of the fact that
there's a demolition permit for
the property that's still standing
at that location, and
that the lot is owned by
another entity as well,
but there are...
And so what's the point?
It's a separate lot,
it's a separate entity.
Wait, you're not asking me questions.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen.
This isn't a debate. If you ask a question,
I'm entitled to cross-examine you.
We're just talking over each other in a court
reporter is not able to. I'm just objecting to the relevance. It doesn't matter how many other
properties he owns. We're talking about 15 Rittenhouse. That's an adjacent property and
there's already. Mr. Richardson I think we can find that out. Your office can find that out by
checking with L&I and that will give you the answer to that question. Do you happen to know
Mr. Richardson if either you or your the councilwoman have seen any of the signatures that
were obtained by Mr. Patterson or his client. Mr. Richardson, you can unmute yourself.
Mr. Richardson. Can you hear me? Yeah, now I can. Okay, I got muted. Did you hear my question?
Yes, I did. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday reviewing the letters of support. And a really significant amount of time reviewing those letters of support. And the majority are irrelevant to this case.
There are three that were 1.2 miles away from the site.
There are two that were 1.1 mile away, two that are a mile away.
Twenty fall in the 0.9 mile and 0.3 mile range, which is beyond the 250-foot range.
The rest are signed by commercial residential property owners, many of them who own multiple properties, and they signed multiple letters.
And if they own multiple properties, why can't they sign them?
Ron, you're talking over him, please.
I'm sorry.
and i did speak to ron about that earlier and he did raise that raise the point that why can't
they sign multiple letters but they you know you can't purport to have 60 letters when the majority
of them are signed by the same people so it's the same people it's the same people ron okay
uh so additionally mr chair additionally mr chair uh you know we feel that it will cause
a traffic problem with regard to Rittenhouse Street. Rittenhouse Street is a speedway and
it serves as the main thoroughfare for traffic traveling from West Oak Lane, portions of
Mount Airy and Germantown down towards Lincoln Drive. And they're always speeding through
there. In fact, I'm guilty of having done that on occasion as well.
Okay, let's move it on.
All right, Mr. Richardson, thank you.
All right, Mr. Richardson, thank you.
Does anyone else wish to speak on this case?
And please, something new and different, because if it's not new and different, I apologize.
We're going to have to cut it off.
We have numerous other cases to get through today.
We're not trying to rush this through, but we just have a lot.
I didn't know it was going to go this long.
I'm sorry, Satina.
can we um a chair we do have six hands okay so if it's okay chair could you ask if anyone
who does not have um something new and different to put their hands down or anybody in support
or anybody because it's a lot yeah so if anyone has something new and different keep your hand up
if not would you please take your hand down
all right chair next we have connie winters miss winters please unmute yourself and wait
for the chair miss winters please identify yourself for the record name and address
my name is connie winters i live at 150 west walnut lane i own um historic germantown
properties and I restore uh I have I own 12 buildings that are historic and restored and
they are rentals both commercial and residential within the sixth area excuse me to tell the truth
I don't understand I'm losing it today I apologize we repeat with every person we need to swear you
in but most people ignore that so please do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
than nothing but the truth. Ma'am, you can unmute yourself. Yes, I do. Okay, now you may proceed.
Thank you. I'll be very brief, but there are three major historic buildings that are vacant that are
within, that are very close to this lot. The Women's Y, Germantown High School, and Fulton
school. They are all vacant and we're hoping that they get developed. Historic development is
important to the continued tax base in our area. Forty percent of the property in Germantown does
not contribute. What is the relevance? Pardon the interruption, but what is the relevance to this
case? Well, I have a city planning background and I think it's important that the neighborhood
is developed as a whole without detrimentally impacting the homeowners of these historic houses
who have contributed to the tax base of the city for years and maintained their homes.
Okay, thank you. Okay. Anyone else? Can I, I had an additional point.
I have an additional point that okay okay can you please make it specific to this issue
the developer did not mention what his anticipated market rents are I'm wondering if they've done a
study and in the context of all the other developments that's going on I'm I'm very
curious to see if there really are enough people to fill all these units
I would expect any developer to anticipate that they will have enough people to fill the units.
Why bother building if you don't think you have that ability to rent?
That's what I would have said. Thank you.
Ma'am, I have a question. You said you owned how many buildings and are they vacant?
I think she testified they're rentals.
excuse me miss winners you can amuse yourself i'm sorry um my question was i'd like to say
one second how many buildings did you say you have and are they vacant or are they completely
full there well i have some vacancies in my commercial units any vacancies in the residential
no okay so you don't view this as competition correct well my my rents are considerably
I didn't ask I said we're not asking that would you no I do not I do not do it as competition
okay thank you but I
chair we have Susan Christian Miss Christian please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Please identify yourself, name and address, and I'll swear you in.
Susan Christian, C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N.
I live at 28 West Haynes Street.
I live at 28 West Haynes Street.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
I submitted a letter about an hour ago to you, Mr. Chairman.
I did not get that letter yet.
Via email, so I'm assuming you will.
and um it's a letter that I I wrote with um five of my neighbors who all signed it
and so we make many points in there that I won't go into you know all of them right now but I want
to reiterate a couple I don't I mean I want to kind of broaden a couple of points that have been
made. One of the reasons, well, one of the points on the application indicates from the developer
indicates that there will be no impact on public facilities. And I would like to argue that that's
not true. If you consider streets and sidewalks as public facilities, there will be an enormous
impact even from 26 units. I live on Haines and Haines and Rittenhouse are one-way thoroughfares
in spite of their narrowness to get traffic to Lincoln Drive. Now this neighborhood is home to
many residents, the 14th district, and a bunch of schools. And the traffic is so bad that there are
regular accidents at the corner of McCallum and Haynes and Rittenhouse and Green.
That's number one. Number two, I think a lot of the development that's happening
in this neighborhood is because it's so convenient to public transit which is great
unfortunately the sidewalks on Haines are regularly blocked five cars all the time day
and night are parked on the sidewalk on the unit block of West Haines that is an issue ma'am that
if you haven't already done so should be taken up with the local police district and your district
council person well it's an enforcement it's an enforcement issue it's a lack of parking issue
the police park on our street which means that we can Mr. Chairman I'm going to object this
it's still relevant it's still relevant but just as a word you might want to talk to your district
council person to see about getting maybe permit parking and that'll alleviate some of your
problems is there anything else related to this project specific to this project if not we're
going to move on um so i will just say that when the sidewalks are blocked people cannot walk to
public transit and did you attend excuse me did you attend the rco meeting i did and did you speak
about all of this at that meeting uh some of it i'm not sure okay so some of it is repetitive
Mr. Chairman. And I just want to make one more comment about the trash removal
from the proposed development. At the public meeting, the developer said that the clearance
was so low that trash trucks would not be able to get in. And many of us question the validity
of that kind of a trash removal process. And we already have a significant trash problem in our