She's new to the Philadelphia zoning process, having crossed the river.
So I just wanted to introduce her to all of you.
Mr. Greenberg, just for the record, could you spell your name for the court?
Sure. Kevin, K-E-V-I-N, green like the color, B-E-R-G.
Where a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Of course.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
So we represent the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The property itself is owned in the name of the parish priest in 1934.
It's all part of the Roman Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia,
sort of the larger family.
You stipulate to the reading of the refusal and also agree with its accuracy?
The referral. Yes, Mr. Chair.
All right. Thank you.
Why don't you share your screen and begin?
Are you going to do the testimony yet, Mr. Reber?
Okay. Thank you.
so let's uh can you see this correctly we can okay so what i'm showing you here on the front
page just so you see is this is the church itself on the right and then on the left is actually the
rectory the convents on the other side of the church behind the trees um but we didn't have
a good shot of both of them together because of the trees we'll get there in a second
um and i'll go through what's going to be on the site so this is the overhead side of the plan
And this is the St. Helena's campus on 5th Street up in the 6100 block.
There are actually three parcels on the plan, on the property.
The first one is the top, which is the rectory.
The second one, and that's the one we're talking about, is this one right here in the middle that contains both the church and the convent.
And then the bottom is a third parcel where the school sits.
Ignore the fact that it says St. Helena's convent over it.
The convent is actually the dark roof building in the middle of this image.
We have the notice of referral.
We have the notice of referral.
So let me step back and tell you what it is, and then we'll talk about what the sisters are doing.
So let me step back and tell you.
So this is a property, actually the church celebrated its 100th anniversary this weekend.
But since 1924, the sisters have been on this property.
Largely, the convent housed about 30 sisters at a time.
They largely worked in the school.
there is obviously, as we all know, less need for nuns housing in Philadelphia. The Catholic
Church's dynamics are changing. There are less nuns. And one of the programs the Sisters of
St. Joseph of Philadelphia have taken on is an immigrant welcoming process in transitional
housing. And the plan is to convert this housing that used to house 30 nuns into housing that will
hold 13 units for women and their children. And the idea is that they will be there for a year
at most for transitional housing as they're going through the process. They come into the country.
These are all legal immigrants who are referred appropriately. They come into the country,
whether they be from Afghanistan or Guatemala or wherever. We would house them and give them
some support with things like getting appropriate permits, social security numbers, driver's
licenses if eligible and if skilled, and some basic functional training to exist in the United
States. And as the individual women are ready, they will be migrated out to transitional housing
elsewhere. If there is a family, they tend to get individual single family homes. If they're
just single women, there are homes, there are longer term housing options for single women
and single men. This is one step in a multi-step process that the sisters take on, and when we are
done here, I'm going to ask Sister Eileen McNally of the sisters to talk a little bit about what the
Sisters of St. Joseph's of Philadelphia are doing, and I will ask Sam Miller, who is the property
person for this project, to adopt the rest of my testimony as her own. So we have an application
of reciprocal exception to, again, just allow this group home. It's been a group home since 1924,
but there is no record at all of any legalization in 1924 of this use as a convent on what is an
RSA-5 property. The entire block is RSA-5, and as you can see, there is no RSA-5 housing on that
block. Across the block in the back there is, and that is the RSA-5 neighborhood.
So that's the project form. This is the deed from 1934. So the first drawing I'm going to show you
is the block complex. Again, this is sort of broken out in more detail. The convent we're
talking about is right here. The only external work that's being done, we're trying to preserve
the entire thing, the only external work being done is this little block right here to the
north side of the convent where we are adding an ADA lift to be able to get people to the first
floor. But it's purely for ADA compliance. And then we may have to extend the sidewalk
right adjacent to that to allow access to that. But nothing else is changing. The property is
the campus large parking lot that's here. There's another one on the other side that serves the
rectory. And it's largely used for the schools during the day and the church at nights and
weekends. The convent itself does not have a significant parking need when they were nuns,
and they don't have a significant parking need as we anticipate this going on.
The rest of the stuff around it is grass and trees,
and we are trying to preserve as much of that as possible.
We may have to trim some trees to paint,
but that's basically all we're going to do externally.
So the first floor is going to house one family apartment, which is up here.
This is the ADA-friendly apartment, ADA-usable apartment up here.
And this apartment comes with its own bath, its own bedroom,
and its own common space, and its own kitchenette.
Again, this is the ADA-friendly unit.
Every other unit in the building that we're adopting has their own bathroom, but not necessarily connected, but they share kitchen and living spaces.
And so there are two different kitchen dynamics, one on each floor for individual families to do some prep and meals.
And then this kitchen and dining room space down here, which will be used for communal activities when that's appropriate.
There is also a great hall right here, which is a converted, I guess it's deconsecrated chapel is I believe the technical term. And this meeting room and these four offices here are designed to support the functions of the program of the sisters operations on site. So that's going to be a permanent staffed operation that will be on site managing this at all times.
The second floor is going to have some of the apartments, as you can see. So this is an apartment right here that's a two-room apartment, a living room and a bedroom that will be designed. It's designed for a single woman in most cases.
a living room and a bedroom that will be designed. It's designed for a single woman
in most cases. Again, here, same thing, although this one has a connected bath
to it. This apartment, apartment number three, does not have its own bath connected to it.
This right here is the bath for apartment three. So these four bathrooms, one is connected to
apartment four. It will also serve as apartment three, and then apartment five and six across
the hall that are also essentially two-room apartments with a bath immediately across the
hall for them. It's not ideal, but we're dealing with a historical communal bathroom on each floor
that the nuns used. And so we're trying to figure out how to retrofit this to deal with what was
essentially a dormitory-style bathroom on each floor. And so we're breaking that up so each
apartment has their own space and they don't have to share. They'll have their own locks. They'll
have their own controls. But unfortunately, for some of the units, they're not immediately
connected. It's less than ideal, but it's sort of the best combination. And then on this corner of
the floor and the other corner of the floor, there's a two-bedroom apartment with its own
bath that's designed for women with children. The policy is that no children over the age of 10,
we realize we are next door to a school. We do not want 15-year-old boys wandering around
unsupervised. So it's going to be children under 10 only. We're not even allowing 12-year-old
girls. It's single women, children under 10, and we may in some of these two bedrooms allow for
multi-generational families if it's a woman and her mother and their grandchildren or something
like that. But again, no children under 10 and no men will be permanent residents here. None of them
will even be allowed up on the first floor. And then the third floor is essentially a mirror of
the same thing. As I said, on the second floor, there is a laundry and common kitchen. The idea
is that people can prepare lunches and sandwiches for the kids to go to school or whatever they need
to do in this space on that floor. And there was a common living room. And then on the first floor,
there was some training space. And then on the third floor, it's exactly the same mirror idea.
Slightly different layouts for the shape. This is a one-bedroom apartment in the corner here
instead of two, but it's got a connected bath and a large living room. It's just the layout
of the floor is a little different. This is a two-bedroom apartment, and then the same
one bedrooms and baths connected or across the hall for these four individual units up here.
Very much a rooming house dynamic, but the idea is that people will be here for less than a year.
We get them trained and we get them moved on to more permanent housing. There's no tax balance.
I think this property has been exempt from taxation since 1924. We oppose to the property
appropriately, front and back. And then these are photos of what currently exists. This is the
kitchen on the first floor that's actually going to be turned into a meeting room when we build a
more appropriate kitchen. This is the existing dining hall space, again, going to be converted.
This is what one of the bathrooms looked like, very much a dormitory-style bathroom,
as you can see. We've started some of the demo on those bathrooms. And these are the stairs,
and there will be a lock on these doors at the first level to not allow anybody who's not part
of the program or living there up those stairs um and otherwise it's essentially you know as you can
see these are all very similar one one room nuns up nuns how apartments that shared kitchens and
bathrooms and that's that's the project um if there's any questions otherwise i'd like to bring
on um sister mr greenberg why don't you mention the uh the uh rco meeting oh so we had an rco
meeting thank you with the upper north community count the council of upper north community
coalitions unc3 um 46 people attended uh i think it was 33 to 9 was the vote in support
um we've got a letter 36 to 9 what 36 to 36 to 9 thank you thank you mr chair uh 36 to 9
And the nine individuals, we were not there for the vote, so I'm not sure, but the people who had challenges were largely about why we were helping these individuals and not others.
And with all due respect, that's not what we think is an appropriate distinction for why you would not support a special exception for this use.
There were two conditions to the letter.
One is that we meet with them on an annual basis, which we are more than prepared to do.
So, in fact, both the long-term program lead and the construction lead have committed to go back for the first year on a quarterly basis and thereafter on a semiannual basis just to touch base and be part of this engaged community because we do think that we're going to be long-term partners to them and we want to maintain that.
their ask is that we attend once a year which is fine um and then their second ask is that we not
get different zoning relief for five years um presuming this is granted we do not anticipate
So presuming this is granted, we do not anticipate anything else, although you never know if we have to come back for some technical reason when we need something else.
anything else although you never know if we have to come back for some tech
But it is our intention for this to be a long-term permanent issue.
The archdiocese is on board with us, with the sisters operating here for many, many years, and the idea is that this will work.
Hopefully it will even help the school because we'll be able to have some of the children living there attend the school.
But the monsignor who runs the church has been enthusiastically in support, and we were thrilled that Sheriff Balal and the rest of the board at the RCO were enthusiastically supportive as well.
Those letters are on file with the board as well.
Although I can pull it up here.
Here's their explanation letter.
And here's their meeting summary.
With that, I'd like to call on Sam Miller to adopt my testimony and then Sister Eileen McNally to talk a little bit about what the Sisters of St. Joseph's do and what the plan is for this location.
Sam Miller, can you please raise your hand?
Sam Miller is allowed to speak. Please unmute yourself.
Hi, Mr. Miller.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Sam Miller.
It's S-A-M-M-I-L-L-E-R.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Ms. Miller, are you a lay employee of the Sisters of St. Joseph's?
What is your title?
I'm their properties director.
And are you in charge of the redevelopment of this property in combination with the program people?
Yes, I am.
You heard my testimony or my summary of the project here today?
Is it true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Would you adopt that as your own testimony?
I will, yes.
Do you have anything else you wish to add?
Not at this time.
Thank you. Oh, Mr. Bergman, one more thing I forgot to add before we turn to Sister Eileen. We sent the letters to 126 of the neighbors, and they received them all, and we had copied the RCO at the time that went out with that whole list. We have proof of mailing as well on hand.
Thank you.
Sister Eileen, can you raise your hand, please?
Sister Eileen's hand.
Yes, she's been allowed to speak.
Sister, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Sister Eileen McNally, E-I-L-E-E-N-M-C-N-A-L-L-Y.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Sister Eileen, can you tell us how long you've been a nun?
Oh, 58 years.
And you are a member of the Order of the Sisters of St. Joseph's of Philadelphia?
And what is your role with the Sisters of St. Joseph's?
I am the Refugee Coordinator for the Congregation.
Can you tell us what the Congregation's focus and goals are with respect to refugees,
and more particularly, how they will achieve that at St. Helena's?
our sisters inspired by the gospel and the mission of the sisters of saint joseph
want to provide safe and secure safe transitional housing for refugees and immigrants so we would
like them rooted in a supportive loving and compassionate care for the dear neighbor
and to provide some residential environment with opportunities to have basic human needs met
and a restorative atmosphere. And you service not just women and children like we're talking
about at this site, but a wide variety of people? Correct. But individual men, are they going to
be at this site or are they housed someplace else? Our men are at a different site. And large
families or families involving women and children and men or women with older children, how do you
house them? Families, intact families or blended families are put into two or three bedroom row