Yes, please. William Kalina.
Mr. Kalina.
Should I promote him or just allow him to speak?
bring mr bring please promote mr kalina okay thank you he's been promoted
mr kalina could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer
mr kalina yes hello chair hi could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer
William Kalina, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-C-U-L-L-I-N-A.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Thank you.
We have just a few images here to show you the site and the current structure that's on the site.
This is a canvas tent with some workbenches and shelving.
uh that's part of eric if you can go to page two uh part of our up sorry yeah not not quite that
far maybe it's page one i think that this is part of our yeah there we go uh our model train exhibit
which features uh pennsylvania rail history a lot of scale buildings of philadelphia landmarks and
that sort of thing, a popular exhibit here at the Arboretum. And we want to, we propose to
replace that canvas tent with, if you can go to page three, a scale version of the iconic
newsstand from the Chestnut Hill West train station on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill.
and we it's we think this will have no impact on adjacent property or even on the arboretum
property and we really just got to use variance because it's considered a second principal
structure on the 116 acre um parcel okay good thank you um questions from the board
no chair no chair no mr chairman
no chair no chair no mr chairman questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
We'll be right back.
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair charles richardson has a hand up and will be allowed to speak
okay hi mr richardson you've already been sworn just mention your name state your name
yes sir charles richardson office of councilwoman cindy bass from 508 city hall
So, the Councilwoman is not opposed to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
We appreciate that.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No more.
Hi, Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good afternoon.
David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from residential single-family to parks and open space.
This proposal for more than one principal building on the site is consistent with the site's long-standing use as an arboretum.
The City Planning Commission recommends the Board grant their proposed variants for more than one principal building on the site.
Thank you. MI 2024-000150-9600 Stanton Avenue, I vote yes.
Thomas Hollomans, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Counsel, you have your votes.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Number here, number 11.
Is you're going to be recused on this?
This is a housing authority property.
MI 2024-000152-2411 North 11th Street.
Darwin Beauvais is the attorney.
recommendation of support from the 37th Ward RCO vote was unanimous there was a CDR completed and
was required and completed
Darwin Beauvais is coming back in as a panelist chair okay
Mr. Chairman Mr. Beauvais could you uh you've already been sworn just state your name for the
record, please? Yes. Darwin, Beauvais, B-E-A-U-V as in victory, A-I-S as in sand.
And could you tell us the relationship between the Housing Authority and this property?
Yes, they are the owner. The Housing Authority is present. As you can see, I'm in a conference room
and I have with me Mr. Greg Hampson, who is a senior executive vice president for construction.
All right, Mr. Holliman has just a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
I did.
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
okay mr chairman members of the board can you see my screen we do yes so i have exhibits one
through 16 includes our refusal our cdr referral uh as well as our application to for cdr as well
as aerial views our cdr letter and photos of the property so let's start with the refusal
and while you look at that let me just introduce greg again the senior executive vice president
for construction for the housing authority. Now, this redevelopment project is consisting of
136 dwelling units for low-income senior citizens, and it sits in our M2 district.
This property was previously occupied for multifamily living in a tower with a mixture
of single multifamily dwelling units in townhouse.
Our application is basically continuing that model,
but we are revitalizing the area
and providing additional housing.
The property is currently non-conforming
with respects to the FAR,
but the property also has the support of the local RCO,
the city of Philadelphia,
the commonwealth and federal and there's federal dollars tied our zoning appeal specifically
And there's federal dollars tied. Our zoning appeal specifically requests for a variance for the erection of three structures, two semi-detached and one detached structure, all on a single lot with an existing detached structure to remain, which I'll show you in photos.
All for it to be a multifamily housing.
Now, we look to provide 54 accessory parking spaces, three ADA, and four electric cars.
We are providing 28 off-street bicycle parking spaces all along accessible routes.
But if you can also see, we do have additional parking spaces for our bicycles.
However, part of our refusal is only dealing with the 28 that are as of right.
So let us start with our photos.
I would like the board to see the site and how do I get to, how do I change pages?
Okay, so here is an existing tower that has been vacant
along with its companion tower, which is not part of this application.
Here's the site along 11th Street.
Another view of 11th Street.
As you can see, the two towers and the vacant property in front of it.
A better view along 10th Street.
10th street now the view on 10th street so with that let's go to
our drawings so this is the application that we basically submitted to cdr and we're giving this
to the board because it actually tells the story in a very very succinct manner as you can see here
we have two lots one was phase one we'll consider one to be phase one and what's before the board
is phase two and i believe this is phase two as you can see this is a copy of our site plan
This is the existing tower that we're looking to redevelop.
Here are the townhomes of mixed structures.
Here's our parking with the island.
And the additional white spaces will be along the concrete islands and near the dwelling units.
Here is views that I showed the board earlier.
Here's maybe a better version of our landscape plan.
That includes our landscape plan.
You can see the different mixed uses here at the tower.
And this gives you a sense of phase one versus phase two.
Above, which is slightly more gray, is phase one.
Below is phase two.
I want the board to also take notice of this new right-of-way.
I say it's a new right-of-way because we subdivided the lot, and we now placed in what is a new street.
It is on city plan, and it is now a right-of-way.
That street is called Boston Street, as you can see up here, and right above Boston Street is Phase 1.
look around showing our landscaping
here are elevations this shows how we are intending to redevelop the existing tower
and how it looks in relationship to our dwelling units here are some side views some cutouts some
Here are some side views, some cutouts, some renderings, showing the elevation.
And also, we have here in the room the architect, Jose Hernandez, so he's available for any questions.
Again, here's a view of what looks like phase one as well as phase two with the new street, Boston Street.
So, Darwin, if you would, I see two refusals here, right? One is for bicycles, and the other one is the exceeds maximum permitted floor area ratio. Why don't you concentrate on that?
Okay. So here, the FAR is an issue when we divided the lot and put in the right-of-way, creating a new lot.
We have this existing tower, and our FAR ended up becoming a refusal.
Had this lot not been subdivided, we would have been fine.
But because we did subdivide it, our FAR was increased and it became over the required amount or the allowable amount.
Now, when it comes to the reason, because I don't want the board to get to take a position that this wasn't unnecessary.
We created this right-of-way because we needed to allow more cars, more traffic. We had to make this area much more open than originally before.
So if history can serve of the board, when this was all one lot, it became an isolated area.
It became an area where people will come in and they couldn't easily find a way or come out.
This is a much better version.
Now, when it comes to our bicycles, we did provide the bicycles in accordance to the code.
However, we have the correct number of bicycles to meet the number of the required bikes.
With that, we're saying because we're creating a more walkable area, a more friendly area, we're asking the board to grant our application to allow these bicycles throughout the property as described on the plan.
With that, I'll just jump to the CDR and the meeting.
So, we met with the community on February 22nd.
The meeting was unanimous.
Received 12 out of 12 supporters at the RCO meeting.
And when we appeared before CDR, they gave us their support as well, not requiring us to appear any further.
They were acceptable of our designs and how we were proposing to move forward.
So, again, let me just introduce you again to Greg and so he can adopt my testimony.
Greg, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Greg Hampson, G-R-E-G-H-A-M-P-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Greg, can you state your position again?
I'm the senior executive vice president of Capital Projects, Construction, and Development.
And have you heard everything that I said today?
Yes, I did.
and would you adopt that as your attention yes i do all right thank you that concludes our
presentation okay those up to questions questions from the board no mr chairman no chair
questions or comments large questions are i think you're recused yeah questions or comments from our
attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
There are no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
And good afternoon, David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
Chair and board members, this proposal completed its civic design review in February 2024.
The civic design review committee's advisory recommendations are not an expression of the city.
The Civic Design Review Committee's advisory recommendations are not an expression of the City Planning Commission's recommendation or opinion regarding zoning variances, special exceptions, or other discretionary approvals associated with this proposal.
In 2023, the City Planning Commissioners approved a street introduction bill to enable the new low-rise dwelling units to have access to a public street.
The floor-to-area ratio bonus is supportable since it continues the use of the site as a guaranteed affordable housing complex.
The appellant also seeks to substitute 28 Class 2 bicycle spaces for the required 46 Class 1 bicycle spaces.
The City Planning Commission has concerns about the reduction in provided bicycle spaces and requests the appellant try harder to comply with this requirement.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant both variances.
Thank you.
MI 2024-000152-2411 North 11th Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
That's it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have your votes.
Number 13, MI 2023-004-520-308-West Queen Lane.
Alan Ockamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Solo Germantown.
I do believe we do have a letter from Faith CDC.
And Mr. Chair, Councilwoman Bass is taking a position of opposition at this time.
She's in opposition?
Her position has changed.
Yes, she's now in opposition.
Thank you.
And how about the FAFE CDC? Where did they stand?
We do not have a letter. I believe they're, it was my understanding that they were in opposition as well, because I was told their position was similar to Solo Germantown, but their vote count was different.
Okay, thank you very much.
Mr. Nackamson.
Yes, Alan Nackamson.
just state your name that's all uh could you identify your client the relationship to this
property uh yes my client is vp308w queen llc and in the audience is uh iran aronovich
okay um our vice chair has a few questions