And then if, you know,
I don't want to speak on behalf of my client.
Again, they're here to speak themselves,
but I'm sure if the board,
if the client realizes that the board is inclined
to deny this request because of the second floor,
maybe the cost that they feel like
was too mitigating to actually do anything,
um maybe that's something they need to take another look at um and they can come back and
see if there's anything they can do with that second floor that's kind of where i've been going
yeah it could be taken down uh i'm gonna this time do it with permits though yeah well absolutely um
i don't want to the question to the board is about do we do a resumption hearing and see
they can come back with some modifications uh yes mr chairman why don't we do that all right
chair i know that there are our neighbors here to testify um if you do a resumption hearing they
could yeah i guess testify at that point but i i would also like to um contact l and i to get
clarification on what was considered and what was refused right so that'll give us time if we do the
resumption, correct? That's correct. All right. Do we have a date, LaKeisha,
for a resumption hearing? Give me one second, Chair. Sure.
Poor and wise, Mr. Chair. Just one comment I'd make is if we are rescheduling, I'm sure a lot
of people are appearing. It's not as inconvenient as appearing, taking a day off work and coming
downtown but uh maybe some note on the record if if uh those in opposition or those in support
or you know if you just want to put something on the record as to who's who's here uh you know
to your discretion my suggestion yeah uh i'm not sure how many people there are it looks like
significant number uh sharon is there a way we can get maybe mr weiss who sits on that board to
submit uh individual uh letters from those folks that are on the line now who may not be able to
appear at the next hearing i believe we we do have letters from those individuals um
if they have registered as being here today that would be good and i'm not sure that mr weiss
could unless he is saying that he actually represents them well i i just was going to
ask mr weiss for clarification if he's acting as counsel for the art because this is that no i think
he said it the answer he's not acting as counsel no just a member of the committee but i if we're
rescheduling. I know a lot of people are on and are passionate about it and have taken the time.
uh and are uh passionate about it and have taken the time and uh as if we were sitting uh in the
hearing room you would normally say you know who's here in opposition note on the record that
there's 18 people that came down uh and hopefully everyone can make it to the to the next hearing
but if they can't at least you know we we uh at least uh made some note about their presence
so again on behalf of the board i want to apologize to the folks who've been waiting
i i know it can be somewhat frustrating uh but we have a whole list of two o'clock
hearings yet and then we have a 3 30 list uh so since we're going to resume this
to a date certain uh when leticia gets back to us with that date
February 17th at 2
February 17th
MI2020
002758
Midville Avenue
this hearing will be resumed on February
17th chair
17th at 2 o'clock
at which time the board will consider any
feedback related to the RCO
RCO and the
council person. Mr. Chair, and will we be able to, will the applicant be able to present any
alternative? Yes. Yes. And you'll have to do a reposting so neighbors are aware of it.
Understood. Thank you. Again, thank you, folks. We know you can be frustrating, but
we have to continue on with these hearings. So let's go to number 11, I believe.
yes yes yeah whoever i am today calendar number 2752 4317 ludlow street i'm going to stop sharing
it's me again hi rachel
Rachel, name and address on the record and spell your last name, please.
Rachel, R-A-C-H-A-E-L, Pritzker, P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R, 1635 Market Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA, 19103.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And the documents are in on this?
Ownership, tax compliance, refusal, referral, photos and plans five days in advance of this
hearing.
And have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter?
And you're already under oath?
I can't remember who I'm saying.
It's okay.
So this is 4317 Ludlow Street.
I'm going to share my screen.
This property is zoned CMX3. It is in West Philadelphia on the 4300 block of Ludlow.
The only refusal that we generated was for a minimum of two accessory parking spaces
were required for eight dwelling units in CMX3 where no accessory parking spaces are
provided. As you can see from the street view, our project proposes the demolition of this
existing structure where this tree is in the way and for eight units with no parking there's no
precedent of curb cuts on this side of the street on Ludlow and typically you know for
off-street parking accessed by a front street we would have to get a curb cut knock the tree down
set the building back to provide maybe one spot. I don't, I'm going to pull it up on Atlas. I have our
long property. I have our architect on the line as well. So he can kind of go through as we've
tried to go through sort of multiple iterations to try to get parking. It's this property is 18
feet by 86. So I think we would add a minimum need a 12 foot curb cut in order to fit two cars. I
think we would need to do a 24-foot curb cut. Again, usually front-loaded parking is typically
not supported on a block where there's no precedent of that. That's all that we're asking
for for this project. There was a lot of opposition from the community, not necessarily around
the parking. Some was around the parking, although we had tried to sort of explain that
setting it back and providing parking spaces was very difficult on this site and would make this
property more out of character. Most of the concerns were honestly around density. I think
most of the concerns were honestly around density. I think there was a big project that was just done
there was a big project that was just done.
across the street that the community was or at the corner here that the community was
not very pleased with so but again setting this back especially in consideration that we sort of
are right next to this corner and providing two accessory off-street parking spaces knocking down
this tree which the community did not want to see knocked down however you wouldn't really be able
to provide off-street parking without knocking this down and again setting this back. Underground
parking is not feasible on this site and so we were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The project is also proposing affordable units or more affordable units in the moderate income
to workforce housing price point as this owner does with all of his properties. I just want to
get to the taxes, had him pay up to 2021. Here's the rest of the payoff for 2021 taxes. So we're
in compliance. Here's the ownership. And I think what probably would be the most effective is to
have the architect just walk through the plans quickly and also the iterations that we tried to
do to get the parking and sort of the issues that we had with that for the board. Again, we're just
looking to get approval to waive the off street requirement for parking and again it's due to the
fact that we would it would bring it more out of character and also we maybe get one spot at most
and then we provide a building that was set back and and again out of character with with the
surrounding property so I believe our architect is on the line if he can raise his hand that would
be great. Is it a rich villa? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Way to be sworn in. Chair,
Chair, you're muted.
I think the Chair is just having some technical difficulties.
Ms. Cowell, are you available to-
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
And did you put your name and address on the record?
I put it on the sign-in.
Can you just put it on the record, please?
I'm sorry.
Richard Villa, Ambit Architecture, 412 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19147.
Rich, can you share your screen and kind of talk through the plans we have now versus
the iterations that you and the client tried to go through before this in order to try
to accommodate parking?
I'm stepping up.
Can everyone see that?
No, we just see your name.
How about now?
Could you enlarge it?
I guess I can.
so the uh parking plan that sort of sort of worked but really didn't work was that
you would pull off the street we'd have to have two tandem spots
and then have a stairway and then a unit in the back um and then a space in the front for meters
and things like that um but this was denied as well because tandem parking is not necessarily
allowed um and so it just became really difficult to make that to make any parking work on that site
unless it was one spot but then we would still have to tear down the tree
and seeing as the entire block of Ludlow there on that side is all CMX3 it would be the same
issue for any development on that side of the street. The proposal is in lieu of this parking
area that's two units per floor one bedroom units that are as Rachel said in the affordable
rains and uh you know we actually sit on the edge of an alley so we have a rear e-rest and a front
door which allows us to really make those uh those units work and rich even when we reduced the unit
count we still had that issue with parking correct because it was originally contemplated at what seven
units it was originally complicated at seven we still needed two parking spaces so at eight we
still need two because it's a three for ten there so got it excuse me what is the size of the
Excuse me, what is the size of the smallest apartment?
smallest apartment
Oh, the smallest is around 400 square feet.
400 square feet?
that's an efficiency it's the top floor where we need to have a second means of egress so if you
look at this unit it's the smallest but the one below that is wider it's the full width of the
house and you know it's about 30 feet deep but they're all they're all one bedrooms one of them
small but it's still a one bedroom one bedroom 400 square feet yeah that's the smallest there's only
one of those thank you all right um okay do we want to bring um travis on rich is there anything
else that you wanted to point out? Not really. Okay. Just hang on if there's any additional
questions. I just want to get Travis on as well. Yep. You guys hear me? Yep.
hi travis seal for srd1 lp uh representing the owner here
miss carol yes yes he was about to do it um can you swear on me sure do you swear or firm to tell
the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yes I do. Travis I just wanted you to kind of talk
through a few things first would be sort of the iterations that we went through to try to make
parking work in addition to reaching out to try to find accessory off-street parking just so the
board can understand the context in which we work through to get to this point. Yeah absolutely yeah
And like Rachel mentioned, we kind of are in a bit of a between a rock and a hard place here in terms of trying to meet this parking requirement within the code.
Initially, we, you know, we did not want to take down the tree.
We did not want to have curb cut and front loaded parking.
So we pursued the option to provide offsite parking on a non-accessory lot that is leased.
We worked extensively for several months and going as far as coming to an agreement for a couple of spots that were within 1,000 feet.
It turned out they were actually accessory, not non-accessory.
So that was not a route that would work because of that technicality there.
And so we really went to great lengths to try and fulfill this.
And then ultimately, we looked towards the design that Rich just showed with the front-loaded parking
because our goal is to always conform to the code because it just makes the most sense.
And that also, per the reasons that Rich discussed, was not feasible
because of technical reasons relating to the curb cut.
I also just do not think that aesthetically it's a good choice or in keeping with the block.
So that brings us to here, and we just don't see a way around this hardship
aside from requesting relief through a variance just to eliminate the the on-site parking
requirement on this parcel um i just want to add is it correct that um we reached out to
lni and also what was required not only for the off-street parking was to actually get the owner
of that parking lot to get a permit for accessory off-street parking spaces and that that was they
they weren't willing to do that. So we were kind of in a standstill as far as that was concerned.
For non-accessory. Correct. Sorry, for non-accessory. Yeah. Okay. And then the other
thing I wanted you to go through is just talk through the price points, because I did mention
that this is more affordable. So I know that Mr. Holloman did mention kind of the small size of
the 400 square foot unit and just kind of wanted to give some information on the affordability of
those units. Yeah, and per what Rich mentioned, that trailing unit is kind of an aberration in
size due to that egress corridor requirement on that floor. The other unit should be, as he said,
in the 640 square foot range, which is the healthy size for a one bedroom. It's an 18 and a half foot
wide lot with windows on three sides. So we're going to have some great layouts, I think, there
as well. And as far as the affordability goes, these units will be renting between $11.50
As far as the affordability goes, these units will be renting between $11.50 and $13.50 a month, which per the AMI standards, that would put them at between 50 and 80, sorry, between around, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but 55 to 70%, depending on the exact dollar amount there, for the household size that would correspond to that unit.