Apologize.
So again, our first exhibit that you'll see right here is a letter from East Passion Crossing.
The chairman has indicated that he's familiar with this group.
I would understand why. The date of the meeting is indicated with 6-14-2021. It was handled via Zoom.
There were approximately 30 people in attendance, and as you can see from their letter, every member of the community group,
zoning committee voted in support, as did those who voted that were in attendance.
The application involves a property that's extremely unique in its location and its configuration.
As you can see from this map, it is a split zone property.
There's a portion here that's located that's zone CMX2, very extremely irregularly shaped.
There's an alley to the west, and then there's an alley on the east side and an alley on the north side.
There's also an RSA 5 portion that you can see here.
But what's interesting about this is that if you, and I'll show you in the photographs and in the aerials,
that the portion in the center is basically an island that's located to the rear of the properties
on the west side of East Pass Young, on the west side of South Juniper Street, and then on the south
side of Mifflin Street. It is, as you can see from our aerial, there's an existing two-story
warehouse structure that takes up almost all virtually all of the CMX 2 portion and then
there's an existing residential structure that's located on the RSA 5 portion fronting on Mifflin
Street. Here's a closer up view of that and as again as you can see this property is the
lion's share of it and the CMX 2 portion is an island that's surrounded by the other properties
fronting on the surrounding streets. Here's a view from the north. You can see the single-family
residence that's located on the south side of Mifflin Street. There's currently an access drive
which will be used for the proposed development in the center portion, the rear portion of the
property that will be maintained, and you can see the existing warehouse structure. You can see that
portions of the roof are currently missing. If we went through the photographs, you can see that
the windows are open, the building's in a poor state of repair. My clients just acquired the
property in the middle of July. They were under agreement when we commenced the process, the
zoning process, and when we went to the community, they had closed on the property since that time.
Here again is a view from the west, view from the south, and a view from the east.
Again, you can see the condition of the existing warehouse that if you drove by you would never
know it was back there. Apparently it has a very interesting history to its past use
from manufacturing nurses outfits and uniforms up to I believe it might have been a club at some
from manufacturing nurses' outfits and uniforms.
point. Here photographs you can see the existing drive the existing structure the front structure
I was unable to get inside it's in worse state of disrepair than the warehouse structure to the rear.
You have where the plan is at the present time and I'm just going to cut right to that
submitted with our amended notice of refusal or amended application that generated the amended
notice of refusal that was issued yesterday. No new refusals turned out being generated by our
amended application and no previously cited refusals were increased. The application is for
a single family dwelling on the RSA 5 portion. Again, the drive underneath that building will
be maintained. There are decks off the rear, roof deck with pilot house. To the rear and the CMX
two portion, which could be utilized for a multifamily dwelling, we're proposing three
single-family dwellings. My clients who are on the phone right now, Rustin Oller, Andrew Sino,
and Nick Kerr are the three, the owners of the entity that own, have acquired the property,
and the intention is for the three of them to occupy the three single-family dwellings with
their families once construction is complete. Each of the units will have one car off street
parking that is accessed by a shared drive. Each will have a roof deck with access by a pilot house.
There'll be a pergola or on top of the roof covering part of the roof deck. There are decks
off the rear at the second floor level and there are steps leading up from the rear yards to the
decks to the rear. That is one of the refusals that we were issued both initially
and with the amended application. You can see right here the zoning code does not allow when
you have an attached or semi-detached structure to have stairs leading from a rear yard up to a
deck. Our other refusal has to do with the fact that, and I could argue as to the technicality,
whether it's actually accurate, but as you know, CMX2 requires the first 30 feet of a building
at the ground floor to be utilized for non-residential and non-parking purposes,
and we are not. We're using the rear portion all for fully residential use for, as I said,
three single-family dwellings. If you get into the definition in the zoning code about building
front building frontage this but these structures don't actually front at the property which is at
mifflin street but regardless we we proceeded to the community group and presented that refusal
uh the other issue is is that we have a height refusal permitted height is 38 feet we're proposing
a height of 45 feet um that's largely due to the the providing the ground floor parking uh with
these particular structures fitting in the three single family dwellings and the oddly configured
CMX2 rear portion of the property has required us to go a little bit up in height, and I could
have Rustin Knoller speak to that. Here are, if you just so desire, here are sections of the
buildings. To the right is the RSA 5 portion. That is what you'll see at Mifflin Street is
built to the 38-foot maximum height permitted in RSA 5, so it's only the rear buildings,
the three single families to the rear that are the 45 feet.
Just so you know, originally there was some plans in development to develop this as a multifamily
project that were brought to the current architects previously by the prior owners,
and again that could have been by right a multifamily dwelling. Here's a rendering of
what the building at the front the single family at the front is going to look like once it's built
and here are some renderings of the three single families as you come in the shared drive
you can see the uh the car parking the garage parking and then here's the view
from the rear yard and you can see the stairs leading up to the deck
um here's a ground view floor plan that shows the parking the rear yards and the decks and
the shared drive again this is a project that um was fully supported by the community
um it's obviously an extremely unique property i can't see it say that i've seen one like this
in all my years of doing it, doing this. And I think it's clear that there's the basis
for the granting of the variants here, the required variances here. And in truth, the
And in truth, the thing that was very appealing to the community was the fact that it could again be developed much more intensely as a as a multifamily dwelling.
thing that was very appealing.
And we're only proposing three single families. And that was something I think that the community found again very appealing.
Here's actually an image of what the by right multifamily what we'd be talking about.
so we'd be talking about a total of 15 units um and instead we have three single families to the
rear of them and this is just the cmx2 portion um and that would obviously provide the commercial
space which you know would be pretty strange to have to go down an alley to get to a commercial
space so there are a lot of things about this property that are very odd very unique and again
we feel warrant the grading of the variance with the full support of the community
um i do have a question uh i'm very familiar with this uh location um you have a garage door
leading into the uh i don't know is that is that considered part of clarion street is it
that that uh pathway is it is it is it on the city map as a street or is it just an alleyway
it's just the driveway it does look at one point that you know because you have the inlets at the
corner let me just go to a photo and and russin can probably speak a little more yeah i just was
i just was curious about it to be honest with you yeah so you can see i actually took photos
step off it's like a curb on each side and yeah you can see you have inlets and curbing that
actually come around and you can see here here's the inlet and here it comes around but
we don't have any information right now that you know that we were able to secure and rustin if
you'd like to be sworn in you can chime in with anything differently that it's not it's not that
i just was curious because i know it runs back like it was may have been at one time you know
years ago as as a city street but that's immaterial i just you know the thing that's
interesting is that it dead ends at the building yeah like it doesn't go through the property it
doesn't go out the other end it goes right to the property it goes right to the garage like if we go
here it goes underneath the building you can see here that's the rear of the building and this is
the front of the warehouse to the rear like there's and there's the alley on the west side there's the
alley that goes on the north side of the warehouse so there's nowhere if it had been a street there
was nowhere it would have been had to have been long before this warehouse was constructed because
there's nowhere for it to go other than into the building to lead into the building the only other
question i had is there any as it relates to the new proposal with the garage door
is there some sort of a warning system for pedestrians anything like that
uh we had not discussed that uh that did not come up at the community group meeting um
Right. But it is I mean, I don't think it's any different than any other garage door located on the city street.
But I don't know that that would be a problem to provide.
Russ, do you want to be sworn in and chime in on that? Yeah, sure.
Please spell your full name. I'm not going to be labored this hearing. I just was curious about it.
All right. Russ Knoller, last name, O-H-L-E-R, address 1405 Wharton Street, Philadelphia, PA.
where from to tell the truth the whole truth nothing about the truth i do sorry chair can
we have a spelling for the first name as well yeah uh rustin r-u-s-t-i-n yeah rustin uh i just
was good is there any um as it relates to the garage door opening is there any uh device that
will you know warrant pedestrians or um that's not something we talked about with the community but
but we'd be happy to introduce one.
The only thing we spoke with the near neighbors about
is that we would allow them to have access in there
if they were needed for the alley
or maintenance of the back of their home.
To answer your first question briefly,
that never was a formal street that I did a bunch of research
and spoke with the survey district.
It's always been private property and privately owned,
so it's never been a city street.
and that was designed and done that way when the carriage house was when the warehouse was built in
the back it was originally a carriage house and had horses yeah figure the carriage house okay
just questions yeah all right mr chairman we're maintaining this we're not widening this opening
um we're going to maintain the curbing so that was another thing that appealed to the community
that in order to gain access we weren't we weren't going to be jeopardizing or losing
any on-street parking by needing to make it wider we're gonna very good thank you any questions from
the board no mr chairman no uh mr orphanages do you need to have your client adopt your testimony
Mr. Orphanitis, do you need to have your client adopt your testimony?
I do. Rustin, I'll have you, since you're the client and the architect,
did you hear the statements I made to the board?
Rustin?
And were they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own, both as one of the current owners of the property
and as the architect on the project.
Thank you.
Anyone else would like to testify in this case?
Please raise your hand.
You know, I have to do this time, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
This property is indicated for commercial mixed use
and single family residential in the comprehensive plan.
We feel there is a demonstrated hardship
to meeting the requirement of commercial retail
because the property does not have frontage
on Passy Yonk Avenue.
However, we feel the applicant has failed
to demonstrate sufficient hardship for height.
Furthermore, the applicant could build
the proposed height as of right
if they make use of the mixed income housing bonus.
Accordingly, we support the granting of the variance for use,
but not the variance for height.
Thank you.
MI 2021-001-798, 1324 Mifflin Street.
My vote is yes.
Professor Plaza, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Case number three on our list, MI 2021-001-826, 1331 North 8th Street.
Brett Feldman is the attorney of record, 14th Ward, Democrat Executive Committee, sent a letter of support.
Mr. Feldman has been promoted to family, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Feldman. Please spell your full name. I'll swear you in, and then Mr. Plaza will have some questions for you.
uh good afternoon um brett feldman 1835 market street philadelphia pennsylvania
uh i represent uh the spell spell your full name please okay b-r-e-t-t feldman f-e-l-d-m-a-n
and i remember you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Mr. Feldman, you agree to wait the reading of his refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
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?
Yes, I have.
And have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
We do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Okay. I'm going to share my screen now.
Yes, please.
Can everyone see it?
Not yet.
Should be the cover page with the exhibits.
No, all we have is a black screen with Brett Feldman has started screen sharing.
can you still hear me we can hear you we can hear you there's nothing on the screen
yeah it looks like my video is locked up here um
let me let me do this um i'm joined today by um janet stearns from uh project home director
or development uh as well as the project home um okay and uh our project engineer ed gleason
um if they may also be uh unmuted and let me try to share the screen again
okay okay we got it now yes okay okay great
so i was going to go have them share screen but now we're good so i'll get right to this here uh