Again, just showing you some of the unique nature
of this property.
And we do have sensitivity to this property and to others.
This alley gate is gonna be removed.
There's gonna be steps to the apartment right here,
reactivate that.
And there's a rear garage for parking
for all the apartment dwellers.
So again, the argument is similar
to what was in the prior presentation.
business community. Most folks in Chestnut Hill want to see vibrant
corridor on Germantown Avenue. To do this, we need tenants, my clients in the business of having
full occupancy, almost full occupancy. We don't want empty buildings. We don't want empty
structures. Our marketing and the calls that we get to our commercial leasing department
tell us that smaller spaces are the way to go. Nationally, that's the trend. Ms. McCauley,
the expert whose letter is referenced at the outset of this presentation. That's what she
suggests. And that's what my client's expertise over 41 years is telling him. So again, no change
to the second and third floor, reducing the size of the commercial space to a manageable 535,
converting the rear portion of the first floor to a one-bedroom apartment.
it. That is the proposal, Mr. Chairman. Can you have your testimony adopted, please?
Mr. Snowden, can you unmute yourself once again?
Yes. I adopt your testimony. Thank you, Mr. Snowden.
questions from the board and mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission okay thank you chair bergman ian hegarty for the
philadelphia city planning commission board members the comprehensive plan recommends a
zoning map amendment at this location from cmx 1 to cmx 2.5 the proposed use is consistent with
the recommended zoning and so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the
variance. MI 2021-004-359-8532 Germantown Avenue. I vote yes with proviso. Use registration required
prior to occupancy for commercial space. Carol Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Toloman, my vote is yes with proviso. Sorry about that.
Thank you, Mr. Clinton. Could you please stay on for the next case?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
All right. MI 2022-001-158-1424 Pemberton Street. Letter of support from South of
South Davis Association. Mr. Clinton, you've already been sworn. Could you identify your
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
client, the relationship to this property.
Sure. My client is Philip Conway, C-O-N-W-A-Y, and Mr. Conway is on the call.
Okay. Could you ask a few questions from our vice chair, please?
Certainly.
Hi. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral,
voters under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
Okay, you may proceed and begin to share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Neri. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
I'm here today on behalf of 1798 Investors, LLC.
That's an entity of which my client, Philip Conway, is one of the principals.
Concerns 1424 Pemberton Street.
Again, my table of contents containing exhibits AA to A10, which I ask to be admitted into the record.
This is my appearance statement.
And this is the refusal.
This is an RM1 zoning district.
We are not asking for multifamily.
We're asking for a single family, and we do have a number of refusals with regard to minimum yard depth, but I can address that because behind the property, there was a small street called Senate Street, which has been stricken, which helps my client pick up an additional number of square feet, which has not been calculated by the L&I examiner.
And we have not included that as part of the project, which would bring these percentages down.
But I'll show the board that little street behind our property.
The height, we're basically smaller than the house next door.
And we're smaller than the houses across the street.
Even though we're at 41 feet, we're still lower than those properties.
And the rear yard, again, this existing property was 100% lot coverage.
So even though we're keeping 100% lock coverage on the first floor, we've pulled back the second floor.
And when you pull back the second floor, we're opening up some of the area in the back.
And when you count Senate Street as open space, it really helps the property come closer to conformance.
The same response with regard to the maximum occupied area.
And then also in the RM1 zoning district, it indicates that parking has to be from a shared driveway or a rear street.
And you'll see this property is on a dead end one way street that has numerous other garages on the street.
In fact, this property was a garage.
So here's a letter of support from Sazna, as the chairman referenced, pretty much overwhelming support.
Here's photographs to give the board perspective.
This is an aerial photograph.
We're looking south.
This is the south side of Pemberton Street.
Pemberton Street is off of 15th.
You take a left and it dead ends right around here.
This is Broad Street.
This is a Keller Williams real estate office,
which is accessed through a pathway from Broad Street.
and then these homes on
Bainbridge, correct, I was going to say
a carpet on Bainbridge Street, they actually use Pemberton Street to come down
and there's a gated entrance here, they enter through Pemberton
and they have parking in the rear, so you'll see as I give you
a closer photograph of this property, it's an existing
two-story garage, which is 100% lock coverage
Now we're looking east down to a Broad Street, standing almost on 15th.
Again, here's the garage.
Here's some larger buildings here.
These properties are now developed, and you'll see the photographs that the architect has.
You can see where these homes are pretty substantial in size.
We have a proviso form if the board looks kindly upon this application.
So this is the front of the garage.
This is a cutaway of the property.
So basically, as it exists now, the property is two stories, goes all the way back, and occupies 100%.
We are removing the rear of this property, so you can open up the second floor a little bit,
and we can have a deck, which provides some open space for the family, hopefully, that will purchase this property.
Then on the second and third floor, it's kind of a strange, I don't want to say strange, because the architects are excellent,
But it's an unusual layout only because we're trying to mirror the house to east of us.
Their fourth floor is set back.
fourth floor is set back and at the request of the neighbor, we set our fourth floor back
And at the request of the neighbor.
so it's in conjunction with the front elevation of his fourth floor.
Again, this is a top-down view reiterating what I just mentioned at the top. The second floor
of the building is going to be removed so we can open up the area for outdoor space.
These are just photographs of the houses across the street.
I referenced them in the aerial photograph, which was a vacant lot.
They're now fully built out.
They're four stories and they're, excuse me, they're higher.
They're actually higher than our building according to the L&I records.
Here's another photograph of the house next door.
And this is our project.
So we're going to obviously demolish that and build a new structure.
This is the floor plan, first floor. There will be no basement here because it's already a slab in the entire first floor. We're going to have a garage here, an office in the rear, a bathroom, and then access to get up to the second and third floor.
There's also going to be an elevator in this property because it's four stories, and the elevator will carry all the way up to the rooftop deck.
Second floor, we'll have a living dining area with the kitchen.
And as I said, since we're taking off the second floor in the rear,
it's going to be a walkout deck in the rear of the property
to provide some outdoor living space for the family.
And then the second, excuse me, third and fourth floors are bedrooms
and the rooftop deck.
Here's a rendering of the property.
Again, there's other garages on the street, several brick,
some bays on the front, set back the upper floor, fourth floor, and then the pie out house on the
very top. What I just want to show the board and get part of the record is, again, based on what
we've seen in the zoning records, some of the houses across the street, they're 46 feet high.
Sony records indicate this property is 42.8,
and we're going to be 41 to the roof
and then a little bit higher for the parapet.
And then the Keller Williams building is about 44 feet
down toward the end of the block.
Again, a cross view to show how the property fits in
with the property next door.
The gray is the property at 14.22.
two, so we set it back so we're not really interfering with the house next door. This is
a front rendering, a lot of brick. I said bay, excuse me, they're just large, a lot of glazing,
large windows to bring light into the property since it faces north. Again, just giving you
context of how it's going to fit in with the house next door. These are the original plans,
Mr. Chairman but I don't see the necessity of showing you the new the original plans because
we did did make quite a few changes I guess the only thing I didn't point out which I should
because I mentioned it during the presentation is
here so this used to be a street senate street uh behind the property I've been back there it's
overgrown. Nobody really uses it. And it's really part of our property. I think we have to do a deed
probably of consolidation, consolidating this lot with our property. We didn't want to go through
that at this point. We wanted to see if we could get approval for this project and maybe just keep
that the way it is. We're not really determining what we want to do, but really that should be
consider some open space for our
property. And really, no one, none of
the homes on Pemberton, whose
rear yards
back against the street, use it in
any way. Maybe that will change over time.
So with that, I would rest
and turn
it over to the Chairman of the Planning Commissioner.
Is your client here
to adopt your testimony? Yes, Mr.
Conway, are you on the call? Can you raise your hand?
Philip, can you raise your hand?
Yeah, can you hear us?
Mr. Conway, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
It's Philip Conway, P-H-I-L-I-P, last name's Conway, C-O-N-W-A-Y.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Conway, were you on the call when I presented your project at 1424 Pemberton Street?
yes and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony as your own
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony?
and consider it correct yes i would thank you mr conway questions from the board no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
planning commission i see no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Board members, the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the existing residential multifamily zoning at this location. As we've seen
in this presentation, this is a relatively small and shallow zoning lot, and so it presents several
hardships that would be addressed by the requested dimensional variances. The requested variance for
front access parking would not negatively impact the surrounding blocks. We feel this is a unique
conditions since this block of Pemberton lacks on-street parking is not a through street. And
then finally, with regard to the requested height variance, we find this to be de minimis. City
Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant all these variances. Thank you. MI 2022-001-158-1424
Pemberton Street. I vote yes with proviso. Revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA September 20th,
2022. Carl Tannery, my vote is yes with Proviso. Thomas Solomon, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Gaines Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso. Thank you, sir. All right, thank you,
Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Have a great day. You too. Number eight, MI 2022-003-483-335,
Franklin Mills Circle. Brett Feldman is the
attorney.
66 Ward RCO sent a letter of support.
Hi, Chair. I'm going to promote Brett Feldman.
Yes, please. May I
put something on the record, Chair? You most certainly can.
So, a correction for this
morning's case for 4306 to 08 Parkside Avenue. The corrected date scheduled is January the 17th
at 930 on a Tuesday, and all parties involved will be notified by our office of the corrected
date and posters will be mailed out so that all the community will know the new date. Thank you
so much, Chair. Thank you, Tanya. Mr. Feldman? Yes, good afternoon. Hi, could you state your
name and spell for the court reporter, please? Yes, Brett Feldman, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, 19103. I represent the property owner. Mr. Feldman, just spell your name,
please, if you get a chance for the court reporter. Brett, B-R-E-T-T, Feldman, F as in Frank, E-L-D-M-A-N.