There's a lot of it.
It was impossible to avoid.
I do want to put on some limited testimony.
uh so i know the hour is late but uh let me just go ahead and bring you right to the earth plan so
i can show you exactly why it was so difficult to avoid a variance for steep slope um i don't
I don't want to blow up too much because then it's going to okay well this is probably pretty
want to blow up too much because then it's going to okay well this is probably pretty good so you
good so you see right here is the steep slope it completely pretty much bisects the property
there's a little bit here I'm indicating with my cursor so it's almost impossible to build anything
that would be remotely compliant with the CMX3 without impacting the steep slope this part of
of the structure here is actually we we built over this deep slope so we actually left this
deep slope intact right here but there are there are footings uh within it so let me go ahead and
introduce Eric um I don't know if there's anything more I want to show you with the exhibits oh we
do have a revised proviso plan form we are asking the board to stamp five pages of um let me just
you the rendering so you can see yeah i was going to say can you remember oh my god flip that sure
and anything specific you want me to show just okay feel free to let me and how many units has
this has eventually been right it's it's a large truck it's a large project it's 260 i got to go
back to the refusal real quick hold on um 268 i believe okay i know it's changed and then yes
that's I'm sorry hold on I gotta rotate back forgive me it's right here 260 dwelling units
and there's 217 accessory parking spaces which by the way are all within within the structure
one of the issues with the the previous so let me let me get right to that this board approved
the preview approved variances for a previous project in 2019 that did not come to fruition
but work did begin on that. So a lot of the slope, a lot of the physical conditions that are there
were the result of some other work that was done. So not all of the steep slope is naturally
occurring. But you can see we have bike parking, EV spaces and ADA accessible spaces, and of course
plenty of bike parking, et cetera. And yet we are asking the board to stand through the negotiations
with the neighbors we made significant changes uh to the project that um the uh the RCO wanted
and we made those changes and we have an agreement with them and we're happy to have worked with them
and you know kind of come up with a nice project I'll show you just some quick renderings um there's
there's nine thousand over nine thousand square feet of commercial space that the community was
actually um uh was glad to see there's a green roof the property is completely and totally
managed from a stormwater management perspective um so with that let me go ahead and ask Eric to
raise his hand virtually um and uh we'll put on some testimony here's some more of the layouts
you can see by the way before eric goes on there's a there's a landscaping in the middle
there's a nice courtyard there's actually two courtyards i'm circling them uh and that they
are completely accessible this one is going to be accessible to the public and this courtyard
is going to be for the enjoyment of the tenants and maybe even the commercial space if that works
out here's some color amenities so go ahead and if you could promote eric i'll start with that
i see him with his hand up um he's been promoted i'm sorry yes yep okay mr marshall can you state
your name and spell it for the record yes eric marshall e-r-i-c-m-a-r-s-h-a-l-l
okay do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do okay proceed counsel mr marshall uh did you hear my presentation so far and can you
adopted as your testimonials matter yes and is it true and accurate it is and what is your
understanding about how why why there's a lot of steep slope on this property as far as the prior
project yeah this is a pha a pha owned property there were previously three mid-bride structures
that were on this property when owned by the pha and uh the those structures were demolished and
as a result there is some you know contours that exist that are remnants of the existing structures
that were on the site how many uh meetings were held with the rco uh we had three like formal
meetings with the rco we had a lot of emails back and forth but as far as like actually sitting down
and working through stuff we had three formal meetings and did you come to an agreement with
the RCO for some architectural modifications of the plan? Yes, we did.
Okay. And can you summarize those for the board today? Yeah. So we did make some modifications
to the exterior. I mean, a lot of them were on the original plans. We had some arches that
on the original plans we had some arches that were being proposed on the on the site they've
were being proposed on the site. They've been removed.
been removed we you know we've set some inset uh balconies to add some articulation to the
uh facade we changed the facade materials um we enlarged the sidewalk along ridge avenue
to create a greater arcade for outdoor seating purposes for uh commercial spaces um
among those were the major items that you know we worked on i'd say
one of the bigger things in reference to the project that you were talking about there was
a previously approved uh you know zba case specifically for this property and when we
came across this property we wanted to take into account some feedback that had been previously
received by the community and so as you can see in the back of this at the rear of this property
there is an existing retaining wall that's pretty much being delineated and you can see it with the
circles that are at the back of the which are like the tree line and what we did was we preserved
the existing tree line that's there because there are homes that actually sit behind this
merrick road is to the right on the screen that you see and it's a very steep slope you know it's
part of why there are slopes on the the property at this location as well but it goes up really high
and then those houses sit up there and they have a lot of green screening with the trees that are
there the previous development was actually going to be built all the way back to the rear of the
property line and it was going to obscure a lot of their views so what we did was we set the
property back 25 to 30 feet uh off the original property line in order to preserve the existing
retaining wall and to preserve the trees that are there to maintain the existing green screening
and we actually made the building and structure itself 20 feet shorter at the rear so part of it
is trying to make it fit in and be mindful of the the neighbors in the in the area other thing that
i would add is that original the original design to this project did have an area where we were
trying to go for no no variances whatsoever in touching steep slope but we did have a scoping
meeting with penn dot and with the streets department as part of the streets department
review and approval of the project that was on ridge avenue they weren't happy with ridge avenue
with the amount of traffic that was in that area they preferred it to be at merrick road which i
mean the prior developer that had proposed and got approval for this project had moved it up on
merrick road so clearly there was a reason for that but when there was no location that we could
put it out other than where the steep slope area is located which is above that second island that
you see on uh on the drawing there right like where palisade drive and merrick road meet
and that is what triggered uh the steep slope variance um but uh you know another key aspect
of what we did here also compared to the other project is they had a lot of outdoor and surface
parking we've tried to maximize uh all of the uh we put all of the parking inside and it's covered
so it's not exposed to the outside elements and any of the open areas are meant to be either open
parks or walkways uh and you know and allow pervious areas to exist as opposed to creating
additional impervious area to help with the stormwater management on the site right and so
let's let's get right to that and by the way did all these changes that you how you improved upon
the project they resulted in an actual signed agreement with with the community correct that's
correct all right and then the as far as the streets department's impact on the project and
the um you you had said that you were actually trying to gear to trying to get an over-the-counter
approval and how did the streets department uh input uh alter that yeah that by then not they
said we won't we don't want you to do ridge you have to move it up to merrick road and once that
happened we had no choice but to disturb the steep slopes right but let's let's be specific
what on ridge the curb cut right the entrance correct yes the entrance to the property yes
right so the streets department's uh input required you to impact the sleep slope is that
is that fair to say that's correct all right so um you went through design review and those changes
were also part of that the changes that you agreed to were also part of that inquiry as well correct
well the the curb cut as proposed um is what triggered the variance so that's prior to
you know the additional feedback that we've worked on since we've gone through the cdr hearing and
process um and a lot so the curb cut was there as part of the original you know so we didn't
move it as a part of the community feedback that was just we had no choice and so uh because of
the streets department other than the streets department's requirement for the curb cut on
Merrick Road have you otherwise minimized the impact on this on the steep slope yes and as part
of the process for this hearing did you actually even though the there were PHA owns the property
did you pay off the uh L and I fee that appeared on the um on the uh Atlas screen yes we did okay
and I that's been uploaded uh zoning board uh members there's uh no uh proof of zero taxes
for this property yes we have the documents all right so that's all i have for eric the
yes we have the documents all right so that's all i have for eric the only other thing i'd
only other thing i'd like to do
like to do unless there's questions of course and i can put whatever uh documents you need
up on the screen all right so he already uh accepted your testimony correct that's your
client yes okay yes all right any questions from the questions from the board is the is the green
roof an accessible green roof yes there is a roof deck uh on merrick road we originally as part of
Actually, some of the feedback that we had, but I guess I forgot to add also, is you kind of see a little bit of a setback.
This little green area that's shown on the zoning plan that didn't originally exist.
That was part of the feedback from the working with the East Falls Community Group saying, like, let's let's soften the feature of if it's imposing nature on Ridge Avenue.
And so we actually cut back and created balconies and terraces there.
and then we relocated the public accessible roof or the public the accessible roof deck for the
residents um there you can see it right there yeah well you can see it here in the rendering
too is this what you want eric i'm sorry tell me what you want me to yeah yeah that's fine that's
that there is a roof deck an amenity roof deck that is at the roof oh that's right here shown
there yes yeah yeah okay but the actual green roof is not accessible no no stormwater management
never again pwd would not be happy if i did that okay what about uh parking uh for the
commercial how does that work you've got commercial space on the ground floor yeah so right now there's
217 car parking uh inside the the structure it's it's meant to be for the residential but that is
some of the conversation that we had uh with the community and if we found or if they wanted us to
designate a certain amount of commercial for the commercial space, we would do it.
I think it depends on what kind of commercial tenant we'd have.
But the intention here is that it's for the residents of the building.
So, and there is also like Ridge Avenue is all street parking,
like all up and down there, there is a lane and that's for parking on the street.
Any other questions from the board?
Okay, I just like to say, I appreciate the open space and the balconies and stuff like that.
when you have this amount of units people do need some air so questions from our attorney
on just confirming the number of units now that are proposed is 257 that's correct
okay thank you that and that that's a result of us cutting out that setback that was on ridge
avenue that actually caused us to reduce some square footage and combine some units and so
we lost a few apartments there questions from a virtual audience yes there's a handout from
hillary langer okay we can bring her on so i let me just jump in i do wanted i did want our engineer
to testify but if i don't get any opposition from the the neighbors i won't call him but
let me call him on rebuttal if there's opposition from anybody today if that's okay okay thank you
Go ahead, Hilary. Sorry.
Good. Thank you very much.
Okay. Hi. How are you? Wait a minute. State your name and spell it for the record.
Yes. My name is Hilary Langer.
H-I-L-A-R-Y-L-A-N-G-E-R.
I am chair of the East Falls Community Council Zoning Committee.
All right. And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
OK, you can proceed.
Thanks. Thanks very much.
I sent you a three page letter describing our negotiations, mostly within the community.
As you know, where.
It just has the one refusal.
um and we had two public meetings and um at my request they did actually increase the number of
notifications i wanted to make sure that all the near neighbors uh got got notified so they notified
a lot more neighbors than they actually needed to per the algorithm um so we had in-person meeting
meeting with members of the senior building. It was about 20, 25 people. Then we had an
Zoom meeting, 12 members of my committee, and I would estimate about 36 neighbors.
So in talking about the refusal, I explained that being zoned CMX3, CMX3 and zoning and
traffic and congestion don't really have a lot to do with each other. CMX3 is intended to bring
have a lot to do with each other.
CMX3 is intended to bring people,
to bring people into the neighbourhood to provide density.
And it's going to be difficult to oppose this steep slope variance
based on the fact that the project
is going to bring traffic congestion, parking issues.
So, you know, starting the meeting, this was really the only feedback that came to the meetings.
The feedback was really about traffic and congestion.
The clogged roads, particularly bad at rush hour.
This is CMX3 on two lane roads, originally designed for horse and cart.
um your neighbors do not want traffic overspill from the units of which there will be overspill
based on our experience in the neighborhood i think with a 133 unit adjacent building that
provides 96 spaces all those 96 spaces inside the building are taken my estimate there's about
another 50 cars parked out on the street however there are no parking restrictions out on the
local roads which could help mitigate some of these issues um there was some objection to
so many one-bedroom units but that's the reality that is the market right now okay so the rco
issued a letter of support correct? Yes can I just finish really quickly? There were no comments
on the aesthetics of the building. We wanted to make sure that you know we had a building that
respected the open space on the site which is what it does and we wanted to make sure that
we had a building in the neighborhood that people weren't going to be complaining about that it is
the ugliest thing they ever saw. So I do want to make a note of the impact of CMX3 in small
neighborhoods like ours. We have taken some measures within a NCA overlay to mitigate that.
Okay, yep, sir, we have this all on your letter.
then um but committee of 17 we considered the opinions um of the attending neighbors and we
decided that um in terms of just viewing this as steep slope variance and the benefit it can bring
if we can mitigate some of the traffic and congestion issues the traffic impact study
and parking restrictions that we would support this variance okay all right thank you so much
thank you for your testimony um do we have any other hands in the audience there are no more
okay you went out again so i would just i just say my engineer would would have testified
since there's no no opposition i don't need to call him officially he would testify that the
in his opinion, that it's impossible to avoid a steep slope variance because of the physical nature
of the site. And that's why, obviously, we feel we're entitled to the relief. The case law is
clear that steep slope is a physical unique condition of property that requires variance
relief if you can't avoid it. And we have actually minimized the impact as much as we possibly could