kind of in the community engagement process with some conditions that we engage an archaeologist
and we keep communications open with them anything that is found on site will be kind of first given
to the conservancy and roy has already started that process having several meetings making sure
that the professionals who is going to be brought on board they're all working together as kind of
this starts so we're we've moved with that and are happy to have this store commission
blessed in concept the design that's being presented today. We also have a letter of support from the Chestnut Hill Community Association.
There are provisos to this, all of which are acceptable. The first being that we did hire as the first condition here.
We did hire a traffic engineer to do a traffic study for the driveway that is proposed.
so the parking access at this site as we'll explain is going to come off of germantown avenue
through an existing driveway that is shared between 8220 germantown avenue and 8224 germantown
avenue roy is under agreement to purchase those two properties as well as own 8226 germantown avenue
the easement agreement there is an existing easement agreement between 8220 and 8224 that
will be formalized prior to us pulling a building permit but the traffic measures the traffic
engineering study that we were requested we did get that is in our exhibit package any improvements
that are needed in connection with the proposed use that any future use of 8220 and 8224
those improvements would be made to that driveway to make sure that that is as safe and effective
for all parties involved second they asked us to hire the archaeologist i mentioned that as part of
our historic commission approval we have agreed to do that they've been retained and we've already
been in conversations with chestnut hill conservancy as well as the community association
on that process as the excavation and the redevelopment begin on this site
the project plans will be built according to the specs that are in this this is part of our
agreement with chestnut hill community association i'll also say that we've finalized a development
agreement with our adjacent property owner at 8238 germantown avenue in connection with us
building up against their property that has some technical aspects of how that is going to work
with them but as part of that agreement we will be building this in strict conformity with the
plans that are being presented to you today any deviations from that would be you know negotiated
and have to be agreed upon with those neighbors and while chess on hill conservancy and the
community association are not formally parties to that agreement also i'll say they are third
party beneficiaries as well um and last i'll mention that mr peter fox who's representing
i believe his parents own the property 8220 germantown avenue this is one of the parcels
that has the driveway access we have entered into an agreement to purchase that property from from
the current owners but his letter of non-opposition is in our packets today um with that i would like
way to kind of explain the history of and the design iterations and a little more specificity
about the design that's being proposed why don't you state your name and spell it for the stenographer
no how's that perfect that's good uh roy aronovich r-o-y-a-h-a-r-o-n-l-v-i-c-h
but do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do counsel
do you hear the statements i made this afternoon to the board are they true and accurate to the
best of your knowledge that's correct would you adopt them as your own yes okay with that please
awesome well good afternoon everyone thank you for having me um i'll start by saying
I'll start by saying this has been a working process.
this has been a working process it's been a really long time we
It's been a really long time.
We, I'm on behalf of the development group.
We purchased this property two and a half years ago.
Originally, you know, we came into this
thinking this is on Germantown Avenue.
This shouldn't be really residential.
This should be some sort of a mixed use development in here.
Started the design, hired Zamir from Anne Morrissey,
architect, Siebel, planning, and started designing.
We started with an 18 unit building
a curb cut along germantown avenue as you can see here um you know five stories very dense bigger
something on the avenue that back at the time we thought might be a good fit um you know a few
weeks came by we went through historic get some more feedback from the community um and decided
you know what this is this is not the right fit um a few months you know went by came back with
another design at that point we got a224 germantown under agreement eliminated the curb cut
reduced the building to four stories set it back but again this was still a 12
unit building still received a little bit of pushback historic didn't love it
even though we you know separated it from the historic building it still
wasn't exactly there more time went by we started engaging the neighbors the
conservancy the business district everyone in the neighborhood to figure
out okay what's the right fit here what can be done here met with the neighbors
decided to reduce it even more went down to five units four residential one commercial
with the curb cut we set the building up towards germington avenue met with them again and decided
you know what this looks right it seems like a right fit but we're still not there at that time
we brought on board matt milan local architect engaged with the neighbors again neighbors on
germington avenue on southampton we try to figure out how can we make this happen we set the building
on southampton additional three foot to allow more space we changed a few things on the design
made sure that everyone is comfortable and this is something that can really work here
did that went back to historic historic gave us green light we loved it we met again with
the neighbors and at that point started a conversation um with the rco regarding
engaging pannoni traffic design cr chess for um archaeological uh engineering um
anything that can be done to make sure this is sufficient this is the right fit for the property
and then recently a few months ago after going through all those meetings ended up working
through everyone loves it we have support from the neighbors and we believe this is a good fit
and this is you know a win-win situation for the neighborhood for the business district
um just everyone around us and we're very excited to make this happen how many units again we have
four residential with one commercial in the building and then the house we
actually going to bring it back and restore it to the original Deppweiler
house. Yeah Roy can you spend a second just on the existing home and what you intend to do there?
So obviously this is a historic home it's been there for years shifts on the outside
very nice interior finishes with wood what we're going to do is rather than
rehab this we're going to restore it right chair rail flooring bring it back
to the original character and what's nice about it this will also have a parking spot in the back
we ended up with six parking spots overall one for the single family home one for the commercial
and then four each one per unit we're very excited we think that the home is going to be beautiful
and there's a lot of high demand for something like this on the avenue throughout the project
we also hired kim wetzel from kim wetzel group on the avenue they're going to present us and
sell those units including the house um yeah we're very excited we think it's going to be
beautiful we're spending a lot of money on the finishes on the design um we're going to basically
create the whole death while air basic collection of properties together um and yeah we're happy
with where this ended up even though this was a you know long road to get here i believe that
the end product is something that we're all happy with and to confirm why we have six parking spaces
AND SIX UNIT SPACES, THE EXISTING RESIDENTIAL HOME AND THEN THE COMMERCIAL SPACE AND FOUR NEW UNITS.
AND THEY ARE ALL ACCESSED BY THE DRIVEWAY THAT'S BETWEEN 8220 AND 8224 THAT WILL CONNECT TO 8226.
WOULD MARVITUS HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
MARVITUS?
MS. TRAGO, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
for the witness
counselor do you have any questions
she must be having some difficulty
because she is unmuted
Hi, you have any questions? No, no, I don't have any questions. We're actually here really just to give our full, sincere support for this project.
you have any questions sir
no no I don't have
We really appreciate all the work that they've put in to making the changes as the buildings evolved and working with us. And we are very excited about this and just want to be here to throw our support behind this.
okay any other things you want to just just to tie up the loose ends i'll say that the
proposal as it's currently proposed is is the least minimum variance necessary to make sure
that we can restore the existing historic home as well as make sure there is a viable suitable use
for what is currently vacant there um much care as you've heard in consideration has gone into
what that use is going to be i did forget to mention that the provides that there be no food
uses um in the commercial space from chestnut hill community association is is completely acceptable
um so we'll make sure that that is you know an agreeable proviso to limit what otherwise
may be a commercial and retail use there um but we don't anticipate any negative impact to the
traffic there's going to be off-site parking here as well um and we're really looking forward to
making sure that this is suitable in in connection with the existing character but bringing something
new and adding a new act of use to germantown avenue questions from the board yeah i have a
question um so just trying to visualize what's happening here so you mentioned the purchase of
some properties that are adjacent how is that related to what you're trying to do with the
building so there's an existing curb cut so as i mentioned previously you know when we purchased it
we were going to create a curb cut right that was okay a new curb cut here is now a parking
um obviously we didn't get good feedback went back purchased a224 germantown a224 germantown
shares and there's an easement for parking with a220 and i'll show you on the plan so
8226 germantown is what's in color on this plan um immediately planned south of that is 8224
germantown this is the existing driveway this runs between 82 24 above it and 82 20 yep and 22.
so the the curb cut that will service this development is existing with an existing
driveway that connects through the rear of 82 24 and will be building the connection to 82 26.
there is an existing easement that governs the relationship between 82 24 and 82 20 but that
will be updated and final formalized before we pull a building permit to make sure it's reflective of
of this plan okay and are 82 24 and 82 20 uh are they historic as well correct they're both historic
and we do have a220 on their contract as well okay so the idea is that the whole you know previously
deathweiler community those three homes are going to be all restored and all together as one you
know there is no proposed development on either of those um as you mentioned both development
plans would need to go to historic and to the extent they need any variance relief they would
come back to the store all right thank you question um there's mention of a referral
about heritage trees i didn't hear anything correct so there's one existing heritage tree
on the buildable area of this site that's going to be removed in connection with the proposed
development there are trees that are going to be planted our landscaping plan is in the packet
to accommodate for that replacement one of the things that we did is in being able to build the
new building adjacent to 8238 to plan north here we created more open space between the existing
property and the new development to kind of preserve some of the sight lines that had existed
so some of that open space is intentional to make sure that the character of the home is still
visible with the new development and I think some between the new development and that space
the existing heritage tree unfortunately it's going to be removed but we are providing the
replacement trees all right thank you and then um question you said that all of these properties
are locally designated is that they were individually designated so um the date I
believe is the same on all of them at some point they were all owned by the Detweiler family
forgive me I don't remember if they were separate addresses at the time they were designated the
addresses have changed over the years okay and um is there any connection in terms of easements or
anything like that let's say the preservation alliance or any other kind of no not that i'm
aware of no okay thank you other questions questions from our attorney hillary emerson
sorry um not not a question but just in terms of the food related proviso from the rco
the only the only food and if we're just looking at the commercial services use is not like retail
And if we're just looking at the commercial services uses, not like retail, tail of food, beverage and groceries, I mean, that would be by right. So that could be part of the proviso too.
But in terms of the food, the food types that are permitted by right under CMX2, just are there a prepared food shop and a sit down restaurant, takeout restaurant, smoking lounge, those are already prohibited under CMX2.
so i didn't i my thought was if they did not want food related things to specifically
call out the food related uses that are permitted in cmx2 they didn't specify if they had a
preference but either option would be fine okay because you wouldn't because it's because it's
i don't think the space is large enough for a grocery unit so i don't think it's viable for
that anyway even if it was allowed i think the intention was more restaurants prepared food
shops sandwiches delis things like that um but they didn't specify okay well we can i mean we
can include those those two uses because the the sorry i'm just pulling back the yeah because
you're because you're seeking a variance for having sam x2 uses um within the property zone
rsa3 so we can just add a proviso that just says no prepared food shop no sit down restaurant and
that'll take care of those prepared food shops prepared food shop no sit-down restaurant
no sit-down restaurants so prepared food shops no sit-down restaurant okay
okay are they looking more for like probably going to be a boutique store it might be a small office
architect um what did furniture store um art gallery something like this okay all right
residential concerns about food kind of odors coming out in commercial kitchen
gotcha if i had to and it's right across the hotel remember over the last two years where
that comment came from i think i believe that was the concern yeah okay that makes sense thank you
okay um virtual audience no hands planning commission
michael gall with the philadelphia city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a
change in zoning at this location from rsa3 residential single family to cmx2 commercial
mixed use the proposed uses would be allowed in the upper northwest district plans recommended
zoning for the site the proposed use multi-family household living is prohibited in the rsa3 based
zoning district this project also requires a special exception for heritage tree removal
the appellant has met the standards for the special exception for heritage tree removal
therefore the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested special
exception for heritage tree removal and the proposed use variances for multi-family residential
multiple principal uses multiple principal uses allowed in cmx2 and the proposed dimensional
variance for minimum front yard depth mi 2025 004 471 8226 germantown avenue i vote yes proviso
per amended refusal dated february 18th 2026 and also proviso uh prepared food no sit down
restaurant no no prepared food or sit down that's all right yep there they go
michael johns uh my vote is uh yes with proviso and i just want to say it's a great project that
it shows what you can do what developers can do when they work well with the community so
good job thank you charles gaston my booty chats with provisos tenetta graham my vote is yes with
provisals Ryan McAdams my vote is yes with provisals my vote is yes with provisals
thank you very much thank you thank you
number two MI 2025 005 417 1110 Wagner Avenue Jermaine Harris is the attorney
Mr. Chair this is Ian Hegarty I'm sorry to interrupt um if oh I'm sorry we'll
do the other one right please I'd like to switch I'll tell them I think I have
thank you we're gonna switch to number four no number yeah number four on the
330 list mi 20 25 007 96 160 58 castor Avenue we have an Spanish interpreter for this Portuguese
portuguese portuguese interpreter could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer
Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?