His building is, in essence, going to be just perpetually dwarfed by this.
If you can look at the zoning maps here, you will see that the property is primarily surrounded by CMX 4 and CMX 5.
We also have a 30-story apartment building here, which is RMX 3.
You'll see Watt Street as I zoom in.
Part of the uniqueness of the property here is we have a 27 by 28-foot property.
It's one of three that do not go all the way back to Juniper.
It's just a small subdivided lot.
it's an old carriage house. Here's just some more images here. Here's the subject property
305 to 307 Watt Street and here here's just a another image of it showing the 28 by 27
showing the homes behind it. Here's an overhead view right here showing the property
And I'll go back through this later, but as you can see, there's a number, this is a lower
height block in general. However, there's a bunch of 44, 45 foot buildings along here. I'll take
you through that. But with the CMX zonings, we have some very large buildings here to the east,
to the north, as well as this is an old image, but now we have the 550 foot tower that is going in.
550 foot tower that is going in. Just so that you can visualize what we have here. So this is
Thank you.
these are the elevations here. This is the front view. So this shows the 45 foot building here.
You see the side view and here are the floor plans just to see. We're not trying to,
there isn't a lot of space to work with due to the fact that there's no rear yard.
So here's the first floor.
There's just an efficiency unit with a garage.
Right now, this property, it's just down to the studs.
There's nothing here.
Second floor, we'd have a living room, dining room.
Third floor, we'd have one bedroom.
Fourth floor, we'd have one bedroom.
And then there'd be a small roof deck.
I'll just briefly take you through why this property is so unique.
So this is a 24-foot tall carriage house right now.
and um it's so it's as i already said 28 feet wide 28 feet deep it has a one foot um rear yard
and actually the neighbors to the east built a wall um a solid wall at the boundary so if you
go inside there's in essence no light at all from the east because you have a wall up against it
and then you have this 550 foot tower to the west so the first floor is basically you're living in
a dungeon. And because there's no rear yard, we have to set back the upper floors here. We can't
just build on the existing foundation. We have to build back seven feet. We proposed to have a six
foot setback instead of the seven. And as the building stands, it is 24 feet tall. So in order
to try and have this so that our client can, he wants this to be his principal residence. He's
to move there from where he already is in the neighborhood. In order to do so, with the 38-foot
limit, if he were to only put on one floor, all you would really have here is a one-bedroom
apartment or a one-bedroom house, which is just too small for the work that needs to be done.
And as I showed you the location on Watts Street, this is quite unique as it's different than every
other property on the block. There's only three that don't go from block to block.
I also want to share with you one more thing.
I'm showing you here, this is a live camera right now to show you
where we are today as far as construction is on the art house.
So that's the tower, and I'm zooming in to show you where my client's property is, and it's this square one right here.
So as you can see, there is a platform that's built up here that's about 50 feet tall.
It's just totally dwarfed.
and I'm going to take you back here to this image and just walk you through some of some of the
issues here so as far as the refusal is concerned we have a height refusal we're trying to build 45
feet an inch and a half whereas it's only allowed to be 38 feet in this rm1 district the rear yard
we are seeking to have it only be six feet where it's required to be seven feet and we're also
seeking relief from the requirement that the roof deck be set back five feet. If there was a five
foot setback there's just nowhere to fit in the roof deck with that. So as you look here at the
map I already showed you we're surrounded on the north east and west by CMX4, RMX3, RMX3.
if you look at the art house here so this has a 50 foot 56 foot base which has 100 percent lot
coverage which is already depriving my client of of light and air here to the north we have
the center city one apartment building that's 30 stories tall you have the university arts dorms
here also very big property and then you have numerous these are cmx4 but there's numerous big
properties just west of it on Broad Street. But what's important is there's a number of RM1
properties within a block that are as tall or if not taller. Down here on Pine Street, we have
1335 Pine, which is at 52 feet tall, and we also have 1333 Pine, which is at 43 feet tall.
We also have on Juniper, which is just the east side of the block, we also have four properties
that are between 44 and 45 feet tall. Those addresses are 324 South Juniper, 326 South
Juniper, 330 to 32 South Juniper, and 334 South Juniper.
and 334 South Juniper. We believe that we meet the five elements necessary to grant a variance.
Again, the hardship relates to the unique physical conditions of the property. The property just
isn't usable right now in its current form as a carriage house. No one would want to live on the
first floor right now because it's in total darkness. The only way to go is up and we're
only allowed to go up one floor which given the unique fact that we don't have the rear yard
we have to have an even smaller footprint. Again the physical conditions of the property
are what caused this. It isn't any act of the applicant. Granting this variance is not going
alter the essential character of the neighborhood. There's already plenty of other properties that
are just as big and this variance is the least minimum variance required to afford relief.
In order to do the fourth floor, we just could not have the building any shorter. And I would
like to just briefly, if Max Richardson can raise his hand, that is the owner and I'd like to have
sworn in. Is there anyone else? Let me just, while we're waiting for him, I'll just walk you through.
I had a few more pictures I was going to show just very quickly, just so you understand
what you're dealing with here. This picture here shows the front. This is the front of the property.
Here's what it used to look like. Again, here's the subject property.
This is showing you what the backyard looks like, the one foot. This is
looking out at the property to the rear.
um again just some more photos this is the property this is the one um looking at it to
the right um here's what it looked like when there was a beer garden before they started putting in
the art house here's what it was once construction started as far as views from the second floor
completely obstructed um here to the right is a view just looking down watt street very
very narrow. And here are some more views as construction is ongoing. The top here is what
you see when you look at the second floor windows because Watts is a very narrow street. It's only
20 feet wide. And then this is what you see from the first floor. And then here's just some
renderings as to what the art house will look like when it's done. And if you look here in
the bottom, here's my client's property, Mr. Richardson in the corner. Again, as far as light
and air is concerned this is a an image that my client took here showing that there's already a
lot of um there's already very minimal amount of light before the tower went up because we have a
the symphony house which is at broad and pine and this is just uh an image here showing um
him being cast in darkness from shadows from the symphony house and um again just with how big it
is this is a picture taken from broad junk looking north and you can see that the art house is just
as tall as city hall is. And is Mr. Richardson, has he been unmuted? Yes.
Here's just a few more images just from the roof looking south, just showing you what some of the
other, what we're being surrounded with here, that's looking south. This is the 30-story building
to the north, 30-story building to the north. This is a large one to the rear. Again, the rear yard.
These are the houses that back up to it, just showing what is directly behind the subject
property. And then these are the other two units that, the other two properties on the block that
are smaller. And then here's a one. So Mr. Richardson? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Mr. Richardson,
do you swear can you put your name on the record please and spell it sure max richardson m-a-x
r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n and your address uh 305 to 307 south watt street thank you do you swear
or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes ma'am okay you may continue
mr richardson did you hear the statements i made today yes i did and were they true correct
inaccurate? Yes, sir. And do you adopt them as your own?
Mr. Richardson, do you adopt my statements as your own?
Mr. Richardson, do you adopt my statements as your own?
I wonder if he muted himself.
Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
And if the board has any questions for Mr. Richardson, who's on this property for a while, he can answer absolutely anything about this.
and his efforts to try and reduce the height of the property in order to reach a compromise here.
Are there any other witnesses?
And does the board have any questions?
No other witnesses.
Okay, Planning Commission?
Sorry, Madam Vice Chair.
We do have someone who wishes to comment, I believe.
Hi, is Richard Ryan?
Mr. Ryan, you can unmute.
Thank you very much.
Hi, sir. Can you put your name on the record and can you spell your last name, please?
Sure. Richard Common Spelling, Ryan, R-Y-A-N, address 310 South Juniper Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.
okay and do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do i do thank you okay um well i'd like to begin by saying that on july 17th 2019
uh this same board uh denied the uh same exact project or essentially the same project
and that previous year 2019 um the wash west civic organization and three neighbors who live
next door all uh agreed that this was not a project that was uh proper for our neighborhood
and uh this essentially the project is the same it might be six inches or 12 inches lower but
it's essentially the same so the applicant is seeking an additional floor an additional height
which on our block, meaning between juniper and Watts, between cypress and pine, not one property
has ever been granted additional height in a variance or an additional floor in variance.
So all the problems that are being presented as hardships with the size of 305, 307 Watts
were already evident when the place was purchased the other buildings around the 45 footers that
45 foot on juniper street comes from a doghouse dormer it's just a tiny little window that lets
light into the attic and the many of the high rises that applicant is saying are a problem
were already there. There are some new ones, of course, especially the Arthas. But if this indeed
is a hardship, then everyone on the block must share the same hardship. Now, previously,
applicants attorney at the Wash West Civic Organization declared that later in 2019,
they met privately with the city planning. And although they never gave us a name or any paperwork,
they said that city planning supported this 45 foot height and four stories they supported that
kind of density well i applaud city planning for supporting that kind of density the way you do it
is by changing the zoning so that everyone can have that kind of density and don't do spot zoning
for one um property in the middle of the block when you're going to leave everyone else thinking
you know what I want to do that too so the Wash West Civic Organization feels and do as do the
neighbors that for our block it's not an appropriate project this will be the tallest building along
with I mean with the addition of the um pilot house would be the tallest building on the block
and so you'll get this situation where everyone wants a pilot house they want four stories they
want 54 and a half feet um that's that's it for now okay are there any more witnesses tanya
there are no hands raised as of now madam chair okay planning commission
good evening my name is ariel de liberto that's a r i e l d as in dog i l i b as in boy e r t o
and i'm here okay do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
I do. Okay. This property is owned for, sorry, residential multifamily. And sorry, I just
This property...
lost my notes. Hold on one moment, please. Based on the surrounding context, we have
no concern with the rear addition. We do have concerns about the proposed roof deck structure
without the required setback and the height accordingly we support the granting of the
variance for the rear addition and oppose the granting of the variance for the height
and for the roof deck structure setback okay calendar number 0222 305 south watt street my
vote is no. My vote is no. I need Jim and Tom or Frank. My vote is no. Okay, thank you. We have
four votes. Frank has recused himself from this. Okay, thank you. We have four votes.
Okay, calendar number is 0977 301 St. Vincent Street.
We have a Maria Dietry, she's been promoted to panelists.
It would be possible also to promote Mr. Dietry, her son, who will be, she will be presenting
this herself, but he will be helping her with technical issues.
can he raise his hand sharon
i'm unmuted i believe okay can you hear me yes all right maria maria dietry and dino dietry are
together at her house on the same lab okay so that's your name and what is the address
11-32, Harriet Grove, Huntington Valley, PA, 19-0-0-6.
Thank you.
My name is Maria Dietrich, D-I-T-R-I, the last name.
Thank you.
Do you, do you strike that?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Okay, you may proceed.
I'm sorry.
It should be both of them, I believe.
My name is Dino Dietri, D-I-T-R-I. I live at 11, I mean, I live at 1215 Mynell Road, Huntington Valley, PA, 19006.
And do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, the refusal referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing?
And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of that.
Okay, you may proceed.
I guess, do I need to show you my screen and pictures that I have?
Yes, you do.
Okay. Let me pop them up.
Do I have to give you, like, access to my screen?
Are you able to put it up, or can you see what I'm looking at?
No, not yet, Mr. Thiestry.
On the bottom, are you using a computer?