oh you know what
yes yes i apologize for that these are the additional pages
thank you you're welcome
how many pages in total so these are the floor plans whereas before i was showing
you the zoning set. Mr. Chairman? Yes. You only need one, the site plan. Okay. Thank you, Tom.
Okay. Anyone else that would like to testify?
I see no hands, Chair. Thank you. Tom, any more questions? No, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Planning Commission. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and board members. David Fecto, F-E-C-T-E-A-U, with the City Planning Commission.
Thank you, sir. Affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, sir, I do. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, the comprehensive plan recommends no change in the residential single-family zoning at this location.
In 2015, Fishtown was rezoned through a community-led process.
However, considering the unique circumstances regarding the structure's demolition, which was not caused by the applicant, we recommend that the Board support the requested use variants to reconstruct the previously permitted building.
Thank you.
okay let the record reflect that we have a letter of support from the rco fish town neighbors
association that being said uh calendar number mi 2021 that's 003177 1214 east susquehanna avenue
my vote is yes with proviso revised plans one page uh approved today
thomas hollivan my vote is yes with proviso james snell my vote is yes with proviso
thank you good luck
Calendar number MI 2021-003198, 1721-23 Chestnut Street.
Ms. Lacey, I believe you're up again.
She's coming back in as a panelist here.
Thank you.
Morning, Ms. Lacey.
You are still on the row.
Can you please identify yourself for the record?
Hi, good morning once again.
Melanie Lacey, Claire Harrison, Harvey Bransburg, 1835 Market Street, Suite 1400, Philadelphia PA 19130.
And can you agree to wait the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Correct. Yes.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Okay. Once again, my name is Melanie Lacey and I represent the tenant applicant, Kura Sushi.
This is a special exception application for a sit-down restaurant called Kura Sushi.
It is located on the stretch of the street between 17th and 18th street.
It is located on Chestnut Street between 17th and 18th Street, which I will show.
As mentioned, we met with the coordinating RCO, which is the Center City Residents Association, on September 28th.
CCIRI provided a letter of non-opposition with proviso conditions, which I'll share.
And the applicant agrees with the proviso.
In response to those conditions, submitted a revised proviso plan application.
which you can see here. In that application, the floor plans were revised only to identify
the trash room, which is located in the basement of the basement floor plan, which you can
see on the lower right-hand corner here. And Chura Sushi will store their trash internally
in this room. They contracted with a private commercial trash pickup vendor, and here we
We also have a floor plan of the dining area, rendering of the proposed facade.
Now I'd like to highlight the property was once a restaurant in the past, and you can
see that in the zoning history.
Now the applicant simply seeks to convert it back to that use.
There are also plenty of restaurants on this particular block of Chestnut Street.
So to give you some background on the restaurant briefly, Kurosushi is an innovative and tech
interactive restaurant concept. Part of what makes them unique is that patrons place their
orders on tablets located above each table. You can see it here. And they remove their orders
from continuously revolving conveyor belt that runs between each of the tables. You can see the
container here. And I'll go back to the floor plan briefly so you can see the conveyor belts
running between the tables.
So each order is delivered, like I said, in a protective container.
It ensures freshness, and those used plates are placed into cubbies beneath the table.
But it isn't a totally automated concept.
Servers are available to deliver drinks, condiments, soup orders,
assist with the use of the tablets, and ensure customer service.
They'll also clean tables after guests depart.
And overall, it's a modern, creative, family-friendly venue.
It's an established brand with 540 locations across Japan, Taiwan, and the United States.
So the property is zoned CMX 5.
The supplemental use controls require us to obtain special exception approval.
And the proposed project is otherwise code compliant.
So to conclude, giving the character of the block and surrounding area,
The proposed sit-down restaurant use for Kurosushi will add a valuable amenity, and it will have no adverse impacts on the congestion of the streets, adjacent properties, public facilities, public health or safety, nor inconsistency with the comprehensive plan.
So that summarizes my testimony on the application. I'm accompanied by Desmond Wong, who is Director of Construction at Kurosushi USA, Inc.
So Desmond, if you'd raise your hand, you'll be promoted to the panel and be sworn in.
please unmute yourself mr wong yes can you hear me now yes sir can you please uh identify yourself
for the records by your first and last name please yes my name is desmond wong desmond is spelled d-e-s
m-o-n-d w-o-n-g and i'm the director of construction at kua sushi thank you your friend
Do you swear or affirm and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Okay, Desmond, did you hear the testimony that I provided to the board this morning?
Yes, I did.
Do you affirm that the presentation is accurate?
Yes, ma'am.
And do you adopt the testimony as your own?
Wonderful.
so that um along with our project architect uh we'd be happy to address any questions that you
may have thank you thank you uh does uh board have any questions no mr chairman no thank you
Uh, Ms. Rebecca Cole, do we get a chance to, uh, take a look at the, uh, provisos to see which
ones are, were enforceable or not? Uh, we need to know how many pages of, uh, plans to stamp, but,
um, if the, the plans are agreed to by the community organization, um, that that's satisfactory.
Okay, good stuff. Ms. Lacey, you know how many pages?
How many pages? The only revision was to the basement floor plan by identifying that trash
The only revision was to the basement floor plan.
room. I can revisit that page if you'd like. And I did send that standalone PDF to Ms. Shaletta
this morning. Okay, so one page. Let the record reflect that we got a letter from Center City
Residents Association of Non-Opposition. Is there anyone else here that would like to speak in this
matter. Chair, we have Sarah, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Sarah, please unmute yourself.
sarah please identify yourself for the record by your first and last name please
okay the hand was lowered now thank you anyone else
i see no other hands chair thank you planning commission good morning david effecto city
planning commission mr chairman members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change
in the commercial mixed use zoning at this location the applicant has proven that a sit-down
restaurant in this building will have no more of an impact than a sit-down restaurant would be
expected to have we recommend that the board support the requested special exception thank you
okay uh calendar number mi 2021-003198 1721-23 chestnut street my vote is yes with proviso
revised plans uh one page approved today thomas holliman my vote is yes with proviso
james snell yes with proviso thank you good luck
Calendar number MI 2021-003104, 1811 North Bend Pelt Street.
Mr. Orphanides is coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you.
morning mr orphanetes please identify yourself for the record
certainly david orphanetes orphanetes and toner to penn center 1500 john f kennedy boulevard
suite uh 800 philadelphia pennsylvania 19102 and i'm here this morning on behalf of infinity
re holdings 3 llc the owner of 1811 north van pelst can you please spell your first and last
name for the scenario? I certainly can. First name is D-A-V-I-D. Last name is O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Thank you. And you swear to front and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. You agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. And have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
it, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, voters and plans five days prior
to this hearing? Yes. Okay. And have you met with the RCO and have a letter? We met with the RCO.
We don't have a letter. I did reach out to them last week, emailed the contact that we were
provided. I have not heard back. I did reach out to Council President Clark's office on Friday and
spoke to mary jones about it i'm not sure she's on the call um she said that that indicated to
me at that time she was going to reach out to them as well um to priscilla and um see if she
could secure one but i've i've not seen an email come in through my email since then or received
a telephone call but we did we did with meet with them and we did uh comply with the requirements
of 14 303 as you'll see for notification purposes thank you please listen may you share my screen
yes thank you
see my screen now
chairman can you see my screen yes yes we can yep
um and also i have um i have the architect on the on the should be on the call charles kerr
if he could be at some point admitted as a panelist and also Erwin and Anita Andrews should be on
as well just to add some testimony and and adopt my statements as well
just to add some testimony and adopt my statements as well.
So again, the property is 1811 North Van Pelt Street.
You can see here from a picture that we also include later in our exhibit book
that the property is a vacant lot.
The property is located between two boarded up buildings, as you can see,
and you'll see in further photographs.
But I just wanted everybody to get a sense right off the bat
of what we're talking about here.
the property has been blighted, has been vacant for a considerable period of time.
The exhibit book that we submitted includes our notice of refusal.
Change to this. There we go. Single page. Okay. The property is owned RSA 5. Our application
is for a three family dwelling as you know in RSA 5 anything other than a single family is not
permitted I've included copies of our revised zoning drawings you'll see right here at tab 2
we lowered the front parapet of the building to bring the building it to the same height of the
buildings to either side of us in the event that those buildings are rehabilitated in their current
condition that is lower than the permitted height so we're not trying to squeeze every little last
bit out of this we're looking to uh to fit into where there are uh existing structures on on the
on the block and the reason i bring that up is you can see here here's our property the vacant lot
there are about half the block or more than half the block is vacant lots and vacant buildings
here's the 1800 block in north van pelt street you can see right here an incredible amount um
unfortunately, of open green space.
It'd be nice if it was green space that wasn't supposed to be houses.
You can see that the abutting blocks to either side of us also have
a very high vacant land rate just by taking a look at the aerials.
This history of vacancies on the block goes back quite a bit of time.
you can see here as we go through the Sanborn maps you can see where the vacancies start to pop up
the zoning archives for the property even though there there's a considerable amount of vacancy
and the properties are presently zoned most of them are zoned RSA 5 and let me just go to our
zoning map see right here our property is here it's an RSA 5 block however if you look at my
exhibit 14 where we've pulled the zoning archives for other properties on the block the block has
a history of a non-single family use the zoning archives from the city's website from atlas
show that 1806 north van pelt street where our property was historically zoned for a two-family
dwelling 1806 north van pelt street for a two-family dwelling 1813 north van pelt street for a three
family dwelling. 1821 North Van Pelt Street for a two family dwelling. 1823 North Van Pelt Street
for a three family dwelling. 1826 North Van Pelt Street for a three family dwelling. 1830 North Van
Pelt Street for a three family dwelling. 1832 North Van Pelt Street for a five family dwelling.
1842 North Van Pelt Street for a rooming house for five non-housekeeping units with two community
kitchens 1843 north van pelt street for a three family dwelling 18th excuse me council excuse me
council yeah is that existing buildings or well i'm just showing the history demolish yeah but
that's that's demolished buildings some of them are not standing anymore some of them are standing
but i'm just showing that this this block has a history of non-single family use and i'm almost
finish. 1844 North Van Pelt Street, three family. 1850 North Van Pelt Street, four family. 1852,
three family. 1853, two family. 1854, two family. 1856, two family. 1857, three family.
So there is a history here again of non-single family use. And you have a high degree, as I
indicated with the aerials of vacancy and blight as on the block going through some photographs
that i have of the of the subject property in the surrounding area
you can see right here photographs showing the conditions on the block and up and down the block
so our our property again we're proposing a dimensionally compliant single family
or three family dwelling the original zoning drawings as i indicated had the parapet in the
The original zoning drawings, as I indicated, had the parapet and the bay extending above the buildings to either side.
bay extending above
So we've brought that down, as indicated, on the revised drawings, so it comports and is in line with the buildings to either side in the event that they are rehabilitated in their current state.
Here is the floor plans.
um the units um you know range in size unit one is uh by level 1700 square feet
um the second floor that's at the cellar and the first floor second
floor has an 844 square foot unit and the third floor um
uh has a has a i'm sorry it's it's front and back by levels at the upper
two level at the second and third floor, 994 at the rear by level and 844 at the front by level.
My clients are a minority owned business. They own a number of other properties.
They generally develop single family. They own eight other properties.
In the city of Philadelphia, their model is to attempt to
to provide affordable housing where they can of their eight existing properties. Again,
when they can, they do single families. This is their first time when they weren't able to make
a single family work because of the economics of the area. At present of their eight rental