The reason there are no setback issues is because it goes from Broad Street all the way to Watch Street.
The intent here is one of the purposes of the project is to maintain eyes on the street, increase the security in the rear of the property, which was one of the concerns of some of the more vocal neighbors at the initial meeting with the RCO.
uh the again the councilman uh it was was very um how do i say uh he he assisted in in getting this
agreement um the uh rear will go up to and match as you'll see in photographs so um there
There it is the least amount of modification to the code due to the requirements of the code.
It causes a hardship due to the two street situation here, and it will decrease the unhoused problem that is presently occasionally there for some of the neighbors in the rear of the property.
because what this will do is you'll see what is presently there is it's a chain link fence with
a lot of rear yard space. This will will prevent that. It will bring the
will prevent that it will bring the rear there'll be a rear entrance there'll be a garage which
in reality will be used to for storage of trash as well as the restaurants supplies so you won't
there'll be a commercial trash pickup Mr.
Bonforte is very is very familiar with this.
Again, here are the revised.
That's the plan.
And I'm missing.
So if I can get to
show the architectural plans also on
is Agatha Reister of Landmark and she is the one who updated these and if I can some way
all right so to give everyone a little bit better of a picture I want to stop
sharing this screen.
Let's see how I can do it.
Oops. And share.
It's present low.
So if everyone can see, this is the present
property right now, the back of it, which is going to be
converted. And this is the front of the property.
If you may recognize it,
South Broad Street at Wharton between Wharton and I'm sorry, Federal and Ellsworth.
My apologies. So he's going to maintain this facade.
I'm just going to stop sharing this one, go back to the previous one.
what i can do is i can if if possible um
just show some additional photos of the neighborhood uh right next door to it is the
broad street diner as you can see this is a commercial area and nothing overly exciting
that you haven't seen attached uh our proof of posting
at the property petition signed by over 50 individuals supporting the property
and again as i had indicated petition from robert metzger right next door
he's the one who has the property that goes all the way to the back on on watch street
our meeting our second meeting in july uh was unanimous in its favor attached as a letter
from uh councilman squilla's office of non-opposition and if we could i mean if you
have any questions regarding the actual plan itself and the look of it i do have agatha
reister who would be significantly more qualified in replying to those uh and and i'll leave at least
do you have the plans there that you can show i do let me get back to them here they go
so as you can see they'll go so the the concession that was made initially what we had
proposed is the entire property to go
to the rear at the same height. We removed
the rooftop decks. We lowered the
rear of the property
and added
the wheelchair
accessibility in the front. This is what
the rear will look like.
And as you can see, right next door to the, I guess it would be south, it goes flush with the property to the south.
To the right of it, you'll see it still maintained.
There's still a fence there.
The side of the property has the additional unused space.
So you'll be able to enter in the rear of the property to get to the units on the second and third floor.
Because one of the challenges that occurred here is to keep the front.
occurred here is to keep the front unchanged and still allow the three family dwelling
with this. Again, there is no use refusal. The only refusal is due to, and I'll get to it,
was the maximum occupied area, 75% permitted, 95% proposed.
And in order to allow these dwellings to bring the property to the rear,
to have continuity throughout the restaurant without destroying its current historical design,
And this was the best use proposed.
So you're allowed 75 percent. You're at 94.
we're at 94 correct and and where we what we did was we we covered certain space because that was
one of the concerns of the councilman as well as the community board as well as a neighbor about
three or four doors down who has suffered um with issues of individuals uh in the rear of the
property so what mr bonforte the the design that we have will then push the when i say push it it
it his building will go to the um and let me get back to the stop sharing this one and share
this so as you can see the rear of this property is actually on watch street
There, if you continue south, there is, there's a state building and I'm not 100% sure what the state building is. So, this looks a little bit, okay, so, and if we can get, this is the current building.
um you're going to bring it out to adjacent to the one next door
right to the left of the vehicle is mr bonforte's uh property
it so we're bringing it all the way uh flush with this rear wall this is the this is the actual
and that's your only refusal that's the only refusal is just the uh the dimensional refusal
Wait a minute. And you're bringing the second floor up as well?
Well, there's already a second and third floor here.
We're just bringing it forward. So there's a third floor in the front of the property.
We're raising this second floor to a third floor. And then the rear portion of it is cut back slightly.
it's going to be two stories
technically I believe it's going to be
three stories but it's
the way that the roof design
is the way that the roof design
is that they
it's a lowered
it's still two stories
I'll show you the
and if we can get Agatha Reister
on she can
Let me just go to Pasquale, bring her on.
I mean, we're keep going around, so bring her on.
She's already testified once today, I think.
I think she said she was there this morning, yes.
Do we share in the audience?
What I'm going to do is I'm going to stop sharing, so that way she can share on her screen.
No, Pasquale, don't.
Don't?
Don't, because I'm in a poor Wi-Fi area.
it's going to actually just prolong
the presentation
Agatha let me tell you
what we need we understand
what it is that it's
just about you know
how much space he's taken
up but just explain what the back looks
like to us please
right now the back is
A unsafe there are no eyes
on the street the windows are very far
away from the
street itself there's only one story
property, a one-story portion of the building that is there. The neighbors have concerns.
We had met with the neighbors proposing.
We had met with the neighbors proposing on the first floor, proposing a space where the commercial tenant could store the trash as well as the residential tenant.
And it would be access for both of them. And there is access to the residential entry from that small street as well.
the tenants had, the neighbors had concerns about the size. We lowered it not to exceed 32 feet
in height, made this front look more as a small street fitting single family dwelling,
and which Pasquale has presented, which, and removed the roof decks, roof deck access structures.
therefore the neighbors did not feel like their privacy was taken away and we also provided
bedrooms facing the street which would add eyes on the street during nighttime as you could tell
from the photographs there are single family dwellings on the street that's perpendicular
to our street but for most part it's it's a walkway that it doesn't really display and doesn't really
feel very safe so adding eyes on the street will will actually help that little street
i'll bite the dimensional uh refusal that was received okay thanks could you please stay on
and counsel could you bring on who's going to adopt your testimony william bomforte he's on
he struggled getting on um by video so he's on by phone and i can well just let him answer the
get on. Okay.
Mr. Balforte,
how do we...
He should hear you.
He is on,
but he logged on
audio.
I know he's audio, but
he'll get on. If he's on, he'll get on.
Do we see his hand?
What does he need to
click? Star five?
he sticks he clicks star nine to raise his hand okay
mr colavita would he be under your name by chance did you send him a link
i did send him a link he may be under my name okay thank you hello hello there we go i sure
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning. Good afternoon, board. My name is William Bonforte.
B-O-N as in Nancy F as in Frank O-R-T-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Bonforte, did you have an opportunity to hear my testimony today as well as that of Agatha Reister?
I have.
Do you agree to both of our testimony's accuracy?
Yes, I do.
And do you adopt both of them as your own?
I will.
All right, questions from the board.
the question is um is this phillips was this a seafood restaurant at some point
no no phillips restaurant was in in another uh seafood restaurant was in another location
on Pashunk Avenue.
This is a
restaurant that's been
kind of shuttered since
It was opened in
1944 and has remained in
its original condition
since the sole
owner passed away
shortly before I
was able to
acquire it from their heirs.
All right. Thank you. No, just just any other any other questions.
Just one quick question is that the access to the apartments, is it from the Broad Street side or is it from this rear wall street?
Currently, it was being operated as a mom and pop style facility.
So the third. No, no, no. He's talking about he's talking about the apartments you have in the back.
Do you go in the back or in the front?
Yes, we are creating a new facade in the back that will strictly be the residential entrance to eliminate the current access to the third floor, which was owner occupied.
access to the third floor, which was owner occupied through the restaurant, which is not a tenable situation in modern, you know, business practices.
All right. Thank you.
Any other questions on the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
um just briefly mr chair i i just wanted to note um that i did see the revised plans
um and took a look at them and um if the board decides to grant we could um uh stamp one page
of revised plans just the site plan because that is all that was previously reviewed by l and i
so we can't add in extra plans so i just wanted to make that clear because i believe the rco wanted
to see a few pages stamped um but we can't stamp those other pages because they weren't previously
before l and i so thank you are there any provisos hillary i don't i believe the the rco only they
just wanted to see that the plans that they went over with mr colavita at the last meeting which
are what were presented today um were in effect that was the only proviso all right questions
or comments from the virtual audience? I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission. Good evening again, Chair and members of the Board. Michael Gall with the
City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends a change to the commercial
mixed-use zoning at this location from CMX 2 to CMX 3. There is no unique physical condition or