Looks like he's having technical issues, Chair.
Let's move on to the next hand, then.
Okay, Susan Ponson will be allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, as spelled for the court sonographer?
Yes, my name is Suzanne, S-U-Z-A-N-N-E.
The last name is Ponson.
P as in Paul, O-N-S-E-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I have been a Germantown resident for 40 years.
Okay. I'm sure you've heard there's a few people have testified prior.
Is there anything, are you in favor of this project or against it?
I am president of West Central Germantown Neighbors, which is a neighboring RCO.
this property isn't a few blocks out of our catchment area. However, I've been on the line
all afternoon, and I've noted the various attorneys and developers that have worked
effectively with the community to create things that the community needs and wants. And I'm
concerned that this property was bought, as you say, in 2022 for $46,000. Now, in my opinion,
he could easily build a single family home. He doesn't have to charge top dollar. He doesn't
have to put granite. He can build a nice solid home that fits in with that community. He can
sell that back plus area off to the rest of the CMX2 back there, and we'll deal with that when
it comes. But they bought this property knowing what the zoning was, knowing that there would be
an issue, and they still did it. I don't see any hardship here, and I also see instead,
I see a concerted effort, not necessarily on this attorney's part, but I see a concerted effort
for many developers to come to Germantown and, you know, disrespect the community.
All right. Thank you for taking the time to call.
Thank you.
Any other hands?
Mr. Chair, I'd like to ask the question of this, particularly this one witness.
Ms. Ponson, how far away do you live from the subject property?
I live in the 5900 block of McCallum Street.
That's not the issue, though.
I'm just asking, so do you live in the Germantown area?
Absolutely, and I have for 40 years.
Is it a mile away from the property that you live?
If it's a mile, I can do it in an easy walk.
Thank you.
i would say it's probably i don't know how much how many blocks it's probably 15 blocks
okay but that's not well that's that's that's that's fine thank you very much we appreciate
your call next hand please it's allison weiss will be allowed to speak hi mrs weiss miss weiss
yes hi thank you could you please state your name and and spell for the course stenographer
allison weiss a double l i s o n w e i s s solo germantown civic association
an affected rco all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth yes i do miss weiss are you miss weiss first there's been several people testify and gave
different reasons are you for this project or against the project no we're opposed all right
And if you're, listen to me, if you're opposed, please just tell us what you think is different than what you've already heard.
Okay, I wanted to clarify a few things, that this is not necessarily a commercial area.
It's a residential area.
There is a corner store on one corner, another corner store on the other corner, and a restaurant.
It is not what you would call a commercial corridor.
Additionally, the commercial area is in the rear.
The zoned commercial area is in the rear, not in the front, which is the residential section.
And so I wanted to clarify that.
And it has been used in the past as a residence.
And there is no real reason that it cannot still remain a residential use.
In fact, the council person in 2015 zoned the other side of the street residential.
She ceased all the commercial uses. And so there are three single families on the even side of the street. And there are a couple of newly built commercial properties that don't have a commercial tenant.
And so there doesn't seem to be a need for this. And the community was totally opposed.
Okay. Ms. White, thank you so much for calling. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the
virtual audience? Yes, a caller, a call-in with the last four numbers, one, two, three, two.
Yes, a caller, a call-in with the last four numbers, one, two, three, two.
Has been allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Pamela, P-A-M-E-L-A, last name Bracey, B as in boy, R-A-C-E-Y.
I simply want to speak.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on one minute, hold on, hold on, hold on, that's okay.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And are you a neighbor?
I am not a near neighbor.
I'm a member of Solo Germantown Civic Association.
Now, let me ask you this.
Are you for or against the property?
I'm against the project.
And I was the person who raised the question at the meeting about handicap accessibility.
And I see you say that.
All right.
Thank you very much.
So you're against the project.
All right.
Thank you, ma'am.
Yes, sir.
Anyone else in the audience?
Yes, there are two more hands and next is Wayne Allen.
Hi, Mr. Allen, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Mr. Allen?
Do we see his hand?
Yes, he's been unmuted.
Mr. Allen?
He's still having to.
all right go to the next hand okay um robert mandeville is allowed to speak
mr mandeville could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
okay he's gone he did okay is there any other hands up yes sir um wayne allen hand is back up
mr allen
mr allen
you still have a technical issue okay thank you all right um and then that excuse me chair there's
nicholas holman okay he's been allowed mr holman please state your name is spelled for the court
personographer nicholas holman n-i-c-h-o-l-a-s last name h-o-l-m-a-n do you swear or firm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir are you a neighbor yes
are you for this project or against the project i'm against the project on the ground of
no parking being provided for the development thank you very much we appreciate you calling
thank you is there anyone other hands up yes chair two more hair two more hands robert mandeville
well we just had him he didn't answer did he mr mandeville i'm here i could you please state your
name and spell for the court stenographer robert mandeville r-o-b-e-r-t-m-a-n-d-e-v-i-l-l-e
do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do are you a neighbor sir i am three blocks away and sir are you in favor this project or
against i am opposed okay and is there anything different that you can mention than what's already
been heard from the other speakers yes examining the history of this lot in problematic shape
is uh it's all there on the zoning map yeah which which uh puts commercial space on the back half
of all the adjacent lots for the next half dozen very long lots down the street and in their
wisdom they said these these lots are too big for residential going back that distance and they've
made the back half of all these lots commercial and indeed this lot had its own commercials
thing down a little driveway that was carved out as an easement so the the back half of this
property ought to be aggregated with the rest of the commercial lots adjacent. And the answer to
this whole thing is to change the lot lines, put residential on the street, and keep the commercial
in the back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Is there anyone else?
Yes, James Etty is allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
is his hand there no chair okay all right then i have kathy stone okay is that the last hand
uh allison wise put her hand back up but she disappeared again okay all right kathy stone
yes all right could you state your name please and spell for the court sonographer
Kathy Stone, can you unmute?
kathy stone can you unmute
can you hear me now yes we can could you state your name and spell for the court sonographer
kathy k-a-t-h-y stone s-p-o-n-e right do you do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
truth and nothing but the truth i affirm i'm telling the truth okay okay thank you are you
are you a neighbor i live about three blocks away and and are you in favor of this project
or against the project again okay and is there anything else you can say that hasn't been said
um lack of parking in that area thank you very much man we appreciate it is there anybody else
gwen gwen bill williams will be allowed to speak is it is this the last person
it's repeat hands up chair i'm not going to go to repeat hands
miss williams is that williams is that what it was gwen bill williams can you unmute yourself
yes i did hi hi could you hear me now we can could you please state your name and spell for
the court stenographer yes my name is Gwendolyn G-W-E-N-D-O-L-Y-N-B-E-A-L-E hyphen Williams
W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth I do are you a neighbor I am a half a block away are you for this project or against the
project? I am, I am against it. I am opposed to it. And I think out of everyone that is here
on the, on this line, and I, I could not hear my computer. Um, I couldn't hear everyone that was
on. Um, but, uh, given the fact, please, and, and bear with me. Um, I was on the other, I was on
both of the uh meetings um the variance meetings uh prior to uh this today's meeting and um
mr allen i i've i've actually and the chairman i've i've actually lived on this block for 65 years
and and um i'm i i am solely i you know there are others that i know that would like to speak
But for some apparent reason, there's technical difficulties and they cannot speak.
I don't know if it's on your end.
No, but Gwen, we've had quite a few people testify.
Okay, I understand that.
I am a direct person.
Excuse me, wait, little, wait, wait, little.
And little is Carlitha Brooks.
She lives on Pulaski Avenue and I live on.
When do me, when do I'm going to tell me why, tell me why you don't want to have this project.
um it really not only i hear individuals constantly speaking in regards to parking
and i heard um mr allen say um uh as far as uh transportation um we have the septa revolution
that we're dealing with that is uh threatening to take away the k bus and chestnut hill west
Okay, see, I didn't hear that. As I shared with you, there's a lot of information that I unfortunately was not able to hear.
But with us having new developments going on in the near future at 447 and 449 West Queen Lane, 442 and 444 West Queen Lane, and 417 and 419, eight units.
But they are single family homes, which is providing parking all the surrounding areas, especially which is very it's not nearby.
But Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, listen to me a minute. I know the surrounding area. I want you to talk about this project and why you don't want this project.
it's it's it's a multi-unit okay and i would appreciate i would i would really is a multi-unit
and we are inundated with multi-family um uh units and i would love to see more um
possibilities for for for family single family homes even if he were even if they were as a
young lady said i i heard someone say before like what there is room enough for two two homes i mean
I mean, the way Mr. Holman, Mr. Holman is, is developing his properties are going back. And this would allow, they, they, they do have the, the, the space or the, you know, the, the space to, to build two, two single family homes or one.
the way mr holman mr holman
All right. Thank you. And I really would like for you. There was a there was confusion between that I'm aware of between Mr. Richardson's letter to Miss Love and then a letter from the city councilwoman's office in opposition to, I do believe, Solo.
So, okay, I think you'll have really and I did one other thing. There was a comment I heard in regards to the canvassing of the area, which was Pulaski Avenue, I think Queen Lane, if I'm not mistaken, possibly Penn Street.
All right, well, tell me what about the canvassing you didn't like.
Okay, the fact is that these are PHA homes, I'm sorry, affordable housing.
These individuals didn't even really fully understand what they were signing.
What bothers me the very most about the RZBA meetings or RCO, the variance changing,
is that the community at large is not aware of all of these CMX 2 1⁄2, RSA 5.
Okay, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, listen, Gwen, listen, Gwen, listen, I know where you stand.
We hear everything you've said.
I hope you do.
We did.
I really hope you do.
I did.
I did.
Okay, next hand.
Chair, let's just repeat hands, Allison Weiss.
Nope, we can disregard.
Chair, you can finish. That's good. That's good. Thank you kindly. All right. Thank you. Alan, Alan, do you want to respond and please try to be very brief, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the board's time.
I think a lot of the testimony that we heard actually speaks volumes about what the community doesn't understand about the situation.
Mr. Master Pasqua, the architect on the project, indicated that the only thing that they can build here, if you kept everything as of right, and even then, because you have the CMX two and a half property, you would still need a variance, is one single family property on the front.
That's it.
It's 16 feet wide.
Is it a regular-shaped lot?
You know, I heard that we don't want commercial here.
All we're doing is proposing a vacant commercial space on the ground floor in the front.
We're doing multifamily here.
And what I heard was, yes, we're okay with multifamily, two multifamily, which made no sense.
But if you look across the street, it's RMX4 across the street, which would allow multifamily.
There is multifamily.