is our exhibit package uh one through eight which i'd asked to be incorporated into the record
i represent uh project home this is an application um probably about 10 years ago the zoning board
Um, probably about 10 years ago, the zoning board, uh, started seeing, um, we obtained approvals for two, um, um, project home multifamily buildings on this, on this property.
uh started seeing um
The property used to be, uh, operated as a large parking lot, uh, for the Northeast or for the, uh, North Philadelphia health system.
And right now, the two multifamily buildings are now complete. And this is an application to create a small, tiny six-car parking lot that would support the two project home buildings, the employees of those buildings, so they don't have to park on street.
So that's what this project is about. It used to be, the whole thing used to be a parking lot. Now it's just would be a very small smidgen of this lot. So let me just go through this real quick. We have, there's five lots that we're consolidating.
We've worked, we obtained some of these lots from North Philadelphia Health System, some from the RDA, some from the land bank, and there's probably 55 pages of documentation showing the accumulation of those lots.
I'm going to go right through that quickly here.
These are all these different understandings for all these different lots.
Next time I'll put them at the end, we have our tax clearance, right here.
And then this is the zoning map, we're at North 8th Street, North Percy, West Thompson
Street, Girard is to the south, and then there's five lots here that are still zoned single
family even though they've now been developed with multi-family buildings that we're putting
together one two three four five for this small parking lot here's what it looked like here's
what it looked like when we first started this massive parking lot the red is just the lots that
we're talking about today and then over the last 10 years this is the first building that project
home developed um i believe that that building has 30 units um and and this is what it looked
like before development this is the this is where the parking lot was and would go again but much
improved as you'll see just going through this real quick and then here is um you know really
just you know showing the amazing work that the project home has done here's building number one
that was developed here's our here's our parking lot here that was the staging for these
multi-family buildings which are wrapping up right now this is building number one
and then to the south is building number two and I just wanted to show you those pictures
just it's been a heck of an accomplishment to build these two buildings out there
that's the parking lot that we want to develop that's it again and that this parking lot would
support the two residential buildings. And this is just for employees. Most project home
residents do not have their own cars, as you can imagine. But we have employees that are 24-7.
And instead of kind of imposing on the neighbors, we wanted to have a couple spaces just for our
employees, the different hours, the notices, the posters. Here is the letter of strong support from
the community group and then i'll just get right to it um pictures summarize that would be yeah i
just want to just show you real quick um these are the building that's going to support the
refusal is primarily because it's still zoned single family um this parking lot if it was part
of the other lots it would it would be fine but it's on its own separate lot so it's considered a
non-accessory parking lot which you can't have on rsa5 um but we couldn't put this this lot with
other lots because of the um the way this staggered accumulation of the lots and then here's here's
the parking lot i just want everyone to see um this would be a heck of a nice parking lot uh
fully landscaped um fencing um trees uh there's only one way um in and out uh off of north 8th
street uh landscaping along the residential area in the back on the side um we have bike
spaces and here's just a close-up of it fully stormwater management ornamental fences I mean
it's it's actually approaching a million dollars I think for this for this parking lot we met with
the community group here's the notices and they were strongly in support they were they were one
of the groups when we first started this project that said hey hopefully you can provide some
when we first started this project that said hey hopefully you can provide some parking
parking for your employees because parking is increasing
your employees because parking is increasingly tight over there so uh with that um i would ask
if the board has any questions but this is kind of the wrap-up of now 10 or x 10 or plus years
uh of the redevelopment of this uh this whole area um this final parking lot
do you have a client to test to adopt your testimony yes i believe uh cassie anderson
from project home uh is is on the line cassie yes i'm here hi please spell your full name
and i'll swear you in c-a-s-s-i-e-a-n-d-e-s-o-n where if i'm going to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do thank you mr feldman and cassie can you just uh provide the
board your your title with project home yes I'm an assistant project manager and in that role
you've been working on the redevelopment of this of the two buildings and also now this
parking lot accessory to those two buildings correct that's correct great and and you you
heard my testimony yes I did uh and was it uh true and accurate yes and you adopt it as your
on? Yes, I do. Great. Thank you. I have no further questions of Ms. Anderson. Any questions from the
board? No, Mr. Chairman. No. Anyone else like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your
hand. Chair, Ms. Diane Munro has raised her hand. I will honor to speak at this time. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Ms. Munro. Please spell your name and I'll swear you in. Good afternoon.
Diane, V-I-A-N-E, Monroe, M-O-N-R-O-E.
Did you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I did.
Thank you, ma'am. Please proceed.
Okay, thank you.
The community supports this project and addition of the parking lot.
It will be an add-on to the community.
The community welcomes it.
um primarily because it'd be less cars to compete with and that curb cut will not interfere with
the um community because it's always been there in existence so we wanted to say thank you very
much thank you for your testimony i should have mentioned that the curb cut's been there the whole
time it's going to be accessed because it wasn't parking lot before thank you diane thank you
anyone else to testify
no further hands at this time sir thank you planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
this property is indicated for commercial mixed use in the comprehensive plan and has not yet
been remapped given the relationship to the adjacent property we feel the requested variances
are de minimis. Accordingly, we have no objection to the granting of the variances.
Thank you. MI 2021-001-826-1331 North 8th Street. My vote is yes.
Confessor Plaza, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Be healthy, everyone.
MI 2021-001111 1917 Dennie, D-E-N-N-N-I-E Street.
This case was continued from July the 7th.
Is there anyone here representing 1917 Dennie Street or Dennie Street?
i see no hands sir thank you mi 2021-001111 1917 denai street my vote is to dismiss
confessor plaza dismiss
tom holloman are you there
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Our vote was to dismiss.
My vote is to dismiss.
Thank you very much.
I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman.
I was having trouble getting on.
I'm sorry.
My vote is to dismiss.
Thank you, Jim Snell.
Thank you.
Number five on our list, MI2020-00324.
Number five on our list, MI 2020-003-245-2406 North 2nd Street.
Sarah Alderfer is the attorney of record.
Norris Square Community Alliance sent a letter of support.
Ms. Alderfer.
Ms. Alderfer, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand so that you may be
promoted and sworn in.
Chair, this is Tanya.
If I could respectfully request that this case be continued.
It's my understanding that Ms. Alderfer is, I believe, no longer representing.
And I would like to see if we can reach out to the applicant to determine who and then send the documents accordingly for the next continuance.
Very good. Thank you. So, AMI 2020, that's 003245.
2406 North 2nd Street is continued.
We'll now go to case number six, MI 2021-001-832-5102 Larchwood Avenue.
Mr. Schlepner is the attorney of record.
Guarding Court, a community association, sent a letter of support.
we'll be coming back in as a panelist
good afternoon chair and members of the board
Isaac Slepner with Mattione limited 100 north
independence mall west suite 5a northwest
Philadelphia PA 19106 here for the applicant
Mr. Slepner hold on please you're still on the oath from earlier would you please
just spell your last your full name sure my first name is isaac i india s sam double a alpha c
charlie last name slepner s sam l larry e elvis p peter and norman e elvis r robert
and mr plaza has questions for you the slepner you agree to wait to read in of his refusal and
to its accuracy i do and do you agree to i'm sorry do you um have you met with the rco and
have a letter we have and we do and have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required
documents proof of ownership proof of tax compliance uh copy of the refusal or referral
photos and plans five days prior to this hearing yes we have thank you please proceed all right
Thank you. Members of the board, I am going to, without further ado, I'll take you through our presentation.
So I will be sharing my screen and I have with me after my presentation, my client, Michael Miller, who is the principal of the Owner LLC.
We'll begin with item one, exhibit one, I should say.
Exhibit 1 is a certificate of tax clearance for 5102 Larchwood LLC, which is the owner of 5102 Larchwood.
I don't know why the form says tenant.
And that was issued on 817 just yesterday.
The owner is compliant with all property taxes.
Exhibit 2 is our refusal, which we just stipulated to.
So I'll scroll through that.
Exhibit three is our letter of support from Garden Court Community Association.
I believe that the board has a copy of that letter in front of them, but if they don't, I'll scroll through it slowly.
The RCO did take a position of support, and the vote was a total of nine, two, and one.
That was on July 14th, so just over a month ago.
Andrew Goodman from Councilperson Gauthier's office was CC'd, as was the Planning Commission and other interested parties.
The RCO wrote a bit of a narrative about just, you know, the contents of the meeting and the contents of our conversation about their support of the project.
um exhibit four is our floor plans and what we're here on today is simply legalizing the existing
use of the property as a three unit um so these are as built plans and i'll i'll show
And I'll show and I may ask my client a bit more about this just to clarify, but these are each small one bedrooms and you'll see that you've got your first floor.
and i may ask my client
uh these are again as built so your first floor encompasses the porch um and you enter directly
off the porch into the kitchen there's the living room uh bedrooms at the back and first floor unit
has the use of a rear deck and bathroom um if you enter in the foyer to go up you'll go up these
steps to the second floor unit the second floor unit's actually a two-bedroom you've got the
front bedroom at the front of the second floor, small kitchen, entry hall over here, kitchen. This
is a vent shaft for lack of a better term over here. Small living room, bathroom, and second
bedroom at the rear. And then the third floor is a small one bedroom. You continue up the steps up
here, enter in here, main room, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom at the rear.
So those are the floor plans.
Exhibit 5A are photos of the current property.
And so this is us at 5102.
Apparently the one is missing.
My client just very recently hired a new management company
who are working diligently to clean this place up
in addition to, you know, managing the tenants and general upkeep of the place.
This is us 5102.
Next door is 5104 Larchwood, which is also a two unit.
This is 5100 Larchwood, which the last time I was there, which was not all that long ago,
maybe two weeks ago, there were permits.
There was also a stop work order on this one, but that looks like they're converting that
to multifamily as well.
This is a closer up view of our property 5102 in the middle there with the red door.
Right next to a 5104, you can pretty clearly see there are two mailboxes there indicating multifamily use.
This is a close up. Actually, that's a close up of 5104.
Now we're getting into adjacent properties. So 5104 has some multifamily.
This is a view and these are all in the immediate neighborhood.
This is 5050 Larchwood, which is just across 51st Street to the east.
And this is at least a three-unit.
You can see one, two, three mailboxes there.
This is actually, there's four electric meters there at 5050 Larchwood.
That's, I want to say, 499 South 51st, which is across the other corner of 51st and Larchwood.
And they've got multiple mailboxes.
this is the side of 499 South 51st. So point being there's quite a bit of multifamily already
in that immediate vicinity. 5108 is also a multifamily. That's another corner view. The
other corner of 51st and Larchwood is Malcolm X Park. So exhibit 5B are photos taken at least
21 days ago, of the orange notice of hearing at the front door of our property. You can see it
right there on the front door. This is a bit more of a close-up shot of it, and this is a very close-up
shot of it. Exhibit 6 is our timely application for appeal. The application for appeal was filed
on 4-20-21. Exhibit seven is our project information form with all the information
requested by L and I at the time of filing the appeal. And exhibit eight is an affidavit of
service that on June 17th, a representative of my office mailed first-class mail to all of the
address is a letter from our office with notice of the RCO meeting. Exhibit A is our letter to the
neighbors dated June 17th regarding 5102 Larchwood, describing the refusal and describing the RCO
meeting. That was a Zoom-based meeting. Everyone who was cc'd, including Mr. Goodman of the
council member's office, the various RCOs in the neighborhood of which there are many
signed by me, all the CCs, along with a copy of our refusal and along with a copy of all
the addresses to which we sent postal mail. And I am not good at gauging numbers, but
And I'm not good at gauging numbers, but there's about 70 of them or so, 75 of them.
there's about 70 of them or so.
Exhibit 9 is a deed in favor of 5102 Larchwood, LLC, recorded on 8-21-15, and 5102 Larchwood, LLC is the current owner of the property.
And at this point, I would call my client, Michael Miller, to adopt testimony.
Mr. Miller, are you out there?
Michael Miller, hello.