He knows what he's doing.
and you know they don't think they have any options and it's like you know so you know
so let me go back are you for this or against and your answer was you're torn
i'm very torn about it because okay so you're not against it i could see you know of
i mean there's there's a lot you know there's a lot more environmental work i mean what i really
would love to see is like for this area and for south philly is a master plan i've worked on
master plans in new york city right and this place is screaming for a master plan you just can't have
like oh here here here and here not think of the grand effect that's going to have on everybody in
the neighborhood your quality of life is going to go to hell so if you don't do it so i i thank you
very much. I think I understand where you're coming from. Is there anyone else
in the audience? Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. I've been
watching you sit there the whole day, like for a long time. Could you please state your name
and spell it for this? My name is Basha Bubel, B-A-S-I-A
B-U-B-E-L. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth? Yes. Are you a neighbor? Yes. Are you in favor of this project
or against yes okay and could you tell me anything we haven't heard yes so um i couldn't attend the
august meeting because everything is always announced last minute but i was at the um may
meeting and majority of us were opposed so i don't know where you guys got the people that
were in favor of this um but basically almost everybody in the neighborhood or sorry in the
block that would be affected most by this which is marvine street where i live we were all open to
being in favor of this if they provided a lot of insure assurances which mostly um have to do with
parking and the thing that they presented were the spots across the street which they packaged
nicely as oh we're offering this parking but they didn't mention the cost and the cost is i think
$325 a month per spot, which we all thought was extremely high and that most of the residents
would decline to pay that and they would be forced to get a parking permit and then fill
up the streets with extra cars. The other concern was that there were too many one bedroom units in
addition to three studios, 47 units is a lot. Let's say we can safely assume that at least
there will be one car per unit and that would make, that would change everybody's life around
that whole block because marvine is directly behind it those spots will get filled up and so
there are a lot of other concerns um like asbestos was a great concern but we are mostly collectively
concerned about parking and congestion there are already plenty of apartments around the area and
more and more construction and so i'm opposed to it because it's going to change our whole
neighborhood with extra congestion thank you and i think before the council's going to follow up
with some issues, right?
Is there anyone else in the audience?
Come on up.
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
It's Jennifer Shropshire.
S-H-R-O-P-S-H-I-R-E.
Do you swear or refer to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
And are you for this project or against?
I am for the idea of the building.
It is the other parts that people have been emphasizing that give me concern.
And I think that my concern in large part is a lot of,
a lot of it's a lot of cheerleading and a lot of emphatic assertions that it's going to be
it's a lot of cheerleading and a lot of emphatic assertion.
beneficial for the neighborhood yet there isn't really evidence of that okay and so i distrust
the promises until they're documented so so you're yeah so you're not against the building itself but
the things around it is what concerns you and you don't trust what's going on the implications of
the building okay all right thank you very much for sitting here the whole day we appreciate i
I saw you sitting back.
Anyone else in the audience here?
Is there anyone in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Ann Lesteva with her hand raised.
You're allowed to speak.
How many other hands do you have?
We have one more from Riley Ross.
All right, thank you.
Ann, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Ann Lestufka.
That's A-N-N, no E.
last name Lestufka, L as in Larry, A as in Apple, S as in Sam, T as in Tom, U, V as in Victor, K, A.
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Are you a neighbor? I am. Are you for the project or against? I am for the project.
Okay. Obviously, the attorney has given us a lot of reasons why the project's good. Can you tell us anything else than what you've heard?
um well the the council's uh presentation today was very thorough sorry my dog is having some
zoomies um but yeah so they were very thorough um so i don't know if i necessarily have too much
i just wanted to re-emphasize that it is a wonderful repurposing um given what it is and
any other by right usage would grossly underserve the community because as the
Council said the fabric of the neighborhood has greatly changed and the added density would
greatly benefit nearby businesses. All right well thank you very much for staying on the phone so
long and we appreciate your input. The next hand please. Chair I'd also like to add that we also
have ken penn with his hand raised as well okay good afternoon uh good evening chairman hi could
you please state your name as bell for the stenographer yes my name is kenneth penn p-e-n-n
first name is kenneth k-e-n-n-e-t-h i am uh with the developer all right hold on one minute do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do mr penn you you
work for the developer you're you're in favor of the developer um i am with my name is kenneth
and i'm one of the developers with henry sullivan on this project all right is there anything you'd
want to tell us yes um we've we have worked in this community for the last four years we developed
a development right down the street called the parker it's a 40 it's a 45 year development um
It received awards for design and for our work there.
We have worked with the Hawthorne community in the past and have been successful in working with them and have delivered a product previously.
And we have made commitments to Hawthorne community in the past.
And so I think there's a relationship that we have to in our initial development.
And we will be making our commitments in the future on this development.
If approved by the ZBA, we will continue to make our commitment.
We have been very involved and very involved with everybody.
We've received approval by the Hawthorne community and will abide by our agreements with them.
Mr. Penn, thank you very much for taking the time.
Is there anyone else?
well thank you
Riley you're allowed to speak
okay thank you I just got the
my name is Riley Ross
hi Riley could you spell your name for this
stenographer first name is
R-I-L-E-Y last name is
R-O-S-S
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth I do
Mr. Ross, are you a neighbor?
Mr. Ross, are you in favor of this project or against?
I am in favor of the building and the concept.
I am against the project as currently proposed.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us.
Is there anything you could tell us that we haven't heard?
And I apologize for having to do this through Zoom.
I wanted to be there in person, but work commitments kept me going.
And I have not heard a lot of the prior testimony,
So I'll try not to be repetitive, but I did hear testimony and I'm in line with the parking situation.
the parking situation. I've been a resident since 2006 on Marvine Street, and I've seen other
I've been a resident since 2006 on Marva.
proposals come through the HEC in which they are more developed, especially when attorneys are
involved. I'm an attorney myself, and I just would expect a CBA or any type of proposal to have more
definitive terms in it. I never would approve any type of proposal for my client that had
The promises of looking for additional things, these are terms that can be locked in. I don't think that the project needs to move forward now without these very important terms regarding parking solidified.
I think that having residents in that building would be great, but without parking assurances, it will be disastrous for the residents in the community.
We need more firm assurances regarding parking, and I've seen it done in other places, and there's no reason it can't be done with this building.
All right.
Mr. Ross, thank you very much.
I know you've been on the phone for a while waiting for us, and we appreciate your input.
Anyone else?
Not at this time, Chair.
Planning. Hold on. You want to respond?
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
But not the whole case again.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm pleased to directly address the neighbors that shared their time to testify today, particularly about two things.
One, parking and second, the community benefits agreement.
And I'm pleased to report first that after the first meeting that several of the South Marvine Street neighbors attended, the second parking lot to achieve the code required amount was secured.
The first parking lot is owned, I should clarify, by ownership. The second on the corner, if I can pull back our slide, is being leased by that applicant.
And at the second meeting, I think this substantial point of feedback from neighbors, having been incorporated not only into the development plans, but into a CBA, was a very encouraging update to the neighbors and a big part of the support for this project.
There was additional feedback at that second meeting that the community benefits agreement should be reviewed by legal counsel of HEC, which is a well-established community-based organization, to which I absolutely and the ownership team absolutely agreed needed to happen.
In fact, the vote was conditioned upon HEC having legal counsel review and provide specific updates to the Community Benefits Agreement.
HEC secured counsel to review the agreement, Joshua Rubinsky.
Joshua reviewed the agreement specifically per the neighbors' concerns that the agreement shall be binding upon successors and assigns.
The parking in the agreement is guaranteed to be used and maintained by the current owners and by any successors in the signs.
There is specific injunctive relief contemplated by the agreement such that if that parking condition were ever violated,
the neighbors could pick it up and take it right to court because it's critical that this parking actually be maintained on the site,
as well as a mediation clause to ensure that any issue with the CBA would be dealt with efficiently.
And Ms. Anne, who you heard from on the line, is actually the zoning chair of HEC.
And I know I don't want to bring her back unless the board would like her to,
but I know it's HEC's commitment that that fully executed and updated legally enforceable agreement
be circulated among solely interested neighbors as it was prior to the August vote, which again
was conditioned upon that legal review. The only other thing I would add is all of the commitments
in the CBI. I know we didn't want to exhaust each of the commitments. Each is specific to
everything from street cleaning to placement of street trees and landscaping and
uh ground floor community room um uh for hgc and other community-based organizations
except for the the last three clauses of that agreement which i'm happy to pull up those are
um uh so the zoning board the zoning board doesn't understand the zoning board doesn't
so the zoning board the zoning board doesn't understand the zoning board doesn't enforce the
cva but this is a duly executed agreement and those commitments are to coordinate with
uh otis the city's office of transportation infrastructure systems as well as council
president's office uh to further update streetscaping and uh traffic calming measures as per
the really helpful comments from some of the residency today so that's all we want to plan
planning commission sorry about that sure this is liz fuselay with the planning commission that
plugged in does that it is yeah okay yeah go ahead the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
icmx industrial and commercial mixed use zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood
in 1979 in a council-supported map change planning commission staff met with the appellant on
september 19th 2025 for a preliminary zoning review this is a primarily residential block
face and the comprehensive plan recommends supporting reuse of obsolete industrial property
outside of industrial protection areas the appellant has shown that there are unique
physical conditions or circumstances that would prevent a strict conformity with the zoning code
the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants for
multi-family and the proposed variants from required parking in the icmx zoning district
thank you very much um mi 2025 002 915 1101 katherine street i vote yes michael johns my vote
is yes. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes. I win, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel, and thank you for everybody taking the time to come in and testify. Thank you
all for your time. Thank you. I'm going to go to number one.
Thank you.
Thank you.
number one mi2023 004 267 900 east chelton avenue movement islam is the attorney for
Green Eagle Properties.
Thank you, Chair. This is Jason, and I am
stepping in again temporarily. Movement
Islam has been promoted to panelists.
They'll be back in trouble.
good afternoon council
Good afternoon.
Counsel, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, let me turn my volume.
I'm not sure I can hear you guys very well.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, I can.
My name is Mukmin Islam.
It's spelled M-U apostrophe M-I-N.
Last name is spelled I-S-L-A-M.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?