Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Alan Ockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Ockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Thank you. Mr. Ockamson, you already have been sworn. Could you identify your client and relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is 3753N, 18th Street Holdings, LLC. And in the virtual audience is its member, Brian Wise.
Our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
Thank you. Please proceed to share your screen. Thank you very much.
Hi, I'm here to present 3753 North 18th Street.
Just from the outset, we are looking to hold this vote, have further community input on these modifications we made to the project at their request.
We will meet with the community. They will provide my understanding.
We will meet with the community. They will provide, my understanding, a letter or update, they may or may not provide an updated letter. And then, you know, we would ask for an opportunity to respond to any additional commentary that the community has. So for all intents and purposes, this will present. And then we would have, I guess, a resumption hearing afterwards. Is that correct, Mr. Chair?
Yeah, I think, Hillary, we could close it except for a letter from the RCO and counsel's response. Is that right?
That is correct. We don't even necessarily need to do a resumption. We can just hold the vote with the record closed except for those documents.
The only thing I would say is if there's additional changes based on that commentary, can I be given the opportunity to make additional revisions to our plans?
Well, in that case, we would want to do a resumption. So we'd have all of that on the record. So we can we can just schedule this for resumption. And Mr. Nockimson, do you already have a meeting scheduled with the community group, another meeting?
I talked to the community leader, Charles Karn. I don't know if he's on the phone, but I believe I talked to him either yesterday or the day before. So we're still in the process of scheduling one. We're hoping to schedule one before the end of the year.
So if Mr. Curran's on, maybe at the conclusion of my presentation, maybe we can schedule something.
So then we can know when we can schedule the hearing.
If not, then you can just reach out to us and let us know once this is ready to be resumed.
All right.
Thank you so much.
All right.
So we're here to present 3753 North 18th Street.
We'll first review the notice of refusal.
Correspondents from the 13th Democratic Ward.
They provided this correspondence, not knowing that we were in agreement to revise our drawings.
But I think there was some confusion in that respect.
So, you know, I don't know if they're going to change their position, but we did make changes at their request, which hopefully will gain community support.
We also have a petition from several addresses on the 3700 block of 18th Street in support of this project.
So it's signed by, I would think, I think a half a dozen individuals.
We have our revised proviso plan form that we completed.
Two things that we did is we set back the third floor in the rear, 10 feet, eight inches at their request.
And we also reduced the building depth by an additional six inches to further be in conformance with the Philadelphia zoning code.
What we're offering for this RSA 5 property is a triplex, which is not out of character in the neighborhood. And you'll see a matter that the board heard in 2022, where under similar circumstances, they granted use as a triplex in addition, and we'll go over those additional addresses.
There are like four or five other instances of multifamily use on that block.
Then we'll review maps of the area and then photographs of the property and then our plans and drawings.
We had a meeting recently and we'll have a review of that notice that we sent out along with proof of mail on that notice.
But in addition, we'll be meeting with the community after this meeting.
our application for appeal our application for appeal our deed to the property and our
certificate of tax clearance again at the conclusion of my presentation I would ask that
Mr. Wise virtually raise his hand be sworn in and I'll have a few questions for him all right so
first our notice of refusal so again this is an RSA 5 property it is rather large in size
The lot area for this property is 1,392 square feet.
So this is not a small RSA 5 property.
We're seeking three dwelling units.
One of the things to note is we did not ask for a roof deck.
We responsibly are storing the trash inside with ventilated trash closets.
We have two refusals.
First is because this is an RSA-5 property and we're asking for three units, we're being refused in that respect.
Again, in 2022, under similar circumstances, this board granted a variance request on this block,
and it's not out of character either to have multifamily on this block, as you will see when I go through that exhibit.
Second, we're being refused because TechWord have a de minimis request for deviation from the Philadelphia zoning code. We are required to provide a rear yard setback of nine feet.
We are required to provide a rear yard setback of nine feet, and we're at eight feet, one inches.
We actually reduce that variance request by another six inches by way of these revised plans.
While we would like to be in conformance with the code, it would be rather difficult, given the dimensions of that building, and to make a functional floor plan.
So we're asking for that slight variation from the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
correspondence from the 13th democratic ward
um now while they voted against the project i think if you look at the letter what they're
really upset about is not the use of the property but the dimensions of the building structure so
there are the structure to the left and right of us are they're set back in the rear
on the second and third stories.
They were upset that our building structure
goes back straight up from first floor to third floor.
This is, I guess the rear yard setback
is part of that refusal,
but the fact that we're not set back originally
had nothing to do with the actual use variance request,
but I think they were so focused on that
and the fact that we did not set back at all
that, you know, again, they were very upset with that happening.
And, you know, we agreed that we would set back the third floor appropriately.
We can't set back the second floor the way they want.
If we did that, we would lose a bedroom for unit number two because, you know, the units
are first floor and lower level for unit one, second floor for unit two, third floor is
unit three.
We're willing to have a one bedroom on unit three as a compromise. We originally wanted two bedrooms for unit three. For unit two, in order to accommodate their setback in the rear, we would lose a whole bedroom. That would make this project impossible to get off the ground.
We wouldn't be able to get financing, given the rising construction costs and the interest rates, which are well over 8% or more for a project of this sort.
It would be impossible for us to build.
And so we're asking, you know, to the community to meet us in the middle where we would, again, set back the third story, which has nothing to do with the refusal for the use.
And we'll see what the community has to say in that respect.
But again, we also met with individuals on that block. And we really focused on people on that block who'd be most detrimentally impacted. And you can see we're at 3753. It looks like we have the signature for 3751.
51. So they would be most impacted by the light and air issues that are allegedly at issue here.
But everyone, and then we also have 3749 as well. So we really did try to deal with the people who
would be most directly impacted by this project. And then our revised plans, again, we're setting
We're proposing to set back the third story, 10 feet, 2 inches, and then also reduce the building depth by an additional 6 inches as well.
And these are our revised plans in that respect.
And then in 2022, in May of 2022, this board heard a similar request for multifamily use at 3757 North 18th Street.
And this board granted that zoning request. So what we're asking for is similar to what was this board granted previously. In addition to 3757 North 18th Street, 3755 North 18th Street is three units by way of variance.
37-37 North 18th Street, I guess that's that one.
Although, yeah, that's that one.
37-61 North 18th Street is three units.
37-65 North 18th Street is actually four units.
And 37-58 North 18th Street is three units.
So while these properties are RSA 5, they do have not only a history,
but in active use for three units or more, and we're asking only for three units.
And then as you can see here where we are in the neighborhood, there is a diversity of housing.
You know, Kolaski cuts across this neighborhood or intersects this neighborhood, but there's a, you know, there's RSA 5, which we're here, but there's also RM1 and CNMX 1.
But there's also RM1 and CNMX1.
So what we're proposing is not out of character for this part of the neighborhood.
So what we're proposing is not.
Plus the RSA-5, there's a significant portion of our block, which even though it's RSA-5, it's multifamily in nature.
And then in terms of where we are in the neighborhood, we're walking distance, the Erie station.
And then in terms of bus routes, we have the 2, the 53, the 56, the H, and the XH as well.
So there's ample public transportation nearby.
And then photographs of the property.
This is our property facing forward.
This is proof of us posting for today's hearing.
The orange poster indicating that the hearing would take place today with the Zoom, and we provided the Zoom information.
This property has been vacant, a vacant lot, as far back as we can verify, because Google Earth only goes as far back as 2008 for this property, but it's been a vacant lot for some time.
I can't speak to how long it's been vacant before then, but clearly the zoning classification has caused issues for the development of this property.
And then this is North 18th Street to the right of the property.
And then I will point out that this is a porch block.
What we try to do is mimic the look of the properties on this block.
North 18th to the left of the block.
Again, a porch three-story block.
And in our plans and drawings, we try to match the height of this building.
The height of this building is 37 feet 6 inches.
We also mimicked the fact that we have a cornice up here.
We have lintels, the windows, like the alignment matches the alignment of surrounding properties.
We have the more traditional bay window here.
And most importantly, we have a porch area, which provides a sense of community in this neighborhood.
And then this is the rear of the property.
And then this is our site plan.
And again, as you can see, we eliminated a portion of the third story at the request of the community.
And then our floor plans are pretty straightforward.
You walk into the covered porch, you come into a common area, you make a left, that is unit number one, which is the first floor and lower level.
And then they have access to the rear yard.
You go up a flight of steps, that's unit number two, and that's a two-bedroom, one-bath.
and then you go up to unit three
and then that's where we conceded the bedroom,
but that's a one bedroom, one bath.
It would be impossible for my client
to build this property as a multifamily structure
by giving up that second floor rear bedroom.
And they could not afford to build this
as a single family home,
given the cost of construction and the rates
and what they could get for it in terms of rental
or as in terms of sale.
So we met with the community on October 30th. This is proof of our emailing the notice weeks before to the coordinating RCO and the other RCOs, as well as the district council members, zoning aides, Charles Richardson.
And 163 addresses were notified of our meeting, listed the addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of 3753N18th Street Holdings, LLC, our notice of refusal that went along with that, along with our project information form, our deeds to the property, showing that our client owns the property.
And finally, our Certificate of Tax Clearance, showing no real estate taxes are owed on their property.
With that being said, I would ask that, I'm going to share my screen, I would ask that Mr. Wise virtually raise his hand.
Brian Wise has been unmuted and allowed to speak, Chair.
Sure. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
yes bryant wise b-r-i-a-n w-i-s-e you swear referring to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes i do chair receipt counsel uh yes um mr wise you heard everything
i had to state today about your zoning matter yes i did and is it true and correct
yes it is and do you adopt as your own testimony yes i do thank you thank you um questions from the
board no mr chairman questions or comments from our attorney
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Mr. Richardson, you have already been sworn to state your name for the record.
Good afternoon again, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass Room, 508 City Hall.
And Councilwoman is going to withhold her opinion right now until after Mr.
Notcomson meets with the community again.
And then once they get some type of an understanding,
then she will give her opinion at that point.
Thank you for calling in with that information.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the first audience?
Chair, we have a caller with the phone number ending in 4608.
Caller, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Paula, with the phone number ending in 4608, please unmute yourself.
They're unmuted, Chair.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
Yes, Charles Karn, C-H-A-R-L-E-S-C-A-R-N, 13th Ward, RCO Chair.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed.
Sir, again, as Mr. Nachman said, we did have a meeting on the 30th.
The presentation was, drawings were inaccurate.
We, we asked for revisions of it based on what they presented. Again, that block has many existing multifamily units on it. We have no issues with multifamily properties on that block there.
We just asked that when the presentation was given, the drawings were inaccurate.
So based on the refusals, we asked that they come back.
And let's take a look at this here.
Because, again, it was quite a few directly affected besides, I think it was 51 and 49,
a couple of the blocks stating that it was incorrect, the drawings.
They had a fine presentation, but it wasn't accurate.
And that's what we're worried about on there.
Thank you for calling in.
We appreciate that.
And I see Mr. Nakamson shaking his head,
so I'm sure that'll be covered when they, future meetings.
Thank you.
Well, sir, sir, that's one of the reasons why I dialed in today.
So I could see Mr.
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much.