Harrisburg City Council Meeting - January 7, 2025

is 5:34 p.m. I would like to call our

work session to

order happy New

Year Mr Parker can you please call the

role

yes Miss Daniels

here Miss Davis

present Miss green present Mr Jones here

Ms rolls present Mr Rodriguez present

Miss Bowers present thank

you um our meeting this evening may be a

little brief um we if you're following

Along on our agenda the first item of

committee business listed is related to

the budget and finance committee um we

were looking forward to updates um by

interim director Gloria Martin Roberts

related to the arpa funding uh and the

proposed projects for affordable

housing um home repair senior

programming and Community connections

Hub unfortunately uh interm director

Martin Roberts is not available this

evening evening um so we will move

forward with our second order of

committee business and that lies with

the community and economic development

committee so I will defer to our

community and economic development

committee chair councilwoman

Daniels thank you uh Mr Parker do you

mind reading resolution 82y 2024 into

the record please certainly resolution

82 of

2024 a resolution appr approving the

preliminary SL final land development

plan for

315 North Front Street submitted by

Vernon Jones of Front Street Lofts

LLC to convert the existing office

building into an 8un apartment building

featuring six one-bedroom units and two

two-bedroom units with two units

designated as affordable units along

with Associated improvements

thank you um and if the representative

for the city could uh identify himself

and give us a brief summary of the

process for this

application uh yes good evening uh

councilwoman Daniels and the rest of the

council members uh Jeffrey Knight

planing director um with the city of

Harrisburg uh so the uh application

before Council uh T oh and uh Happy New

Year to everybody too as well uh so the

application before uh council tonight is

is um as Mr Parker read a land

development plan for uh the internal

conversion of uh the former office

building at 3:15 North Front Street uh

into um eight apartment into an8 unit

apartment building uh six of the units

will be within the primary structure uh

on site and then two of the units will

be in the um uh it will be in the

carriage house at the uh rear of the

property uh as Mr Parker noted um two of

the units will be designated as

affordable um it should be noted that uh

this um is not part of while Mr um Jones

is committing to the affordable units

it's not part of um uh a density bonus

um benefit that he's getting as part of

this so this is kind of almost entirely

uh at the um applicant's um proposal uh

in addition uh the applicant is going to

be providing uh believe 10 total parking

spaces there are two in the courtyard uh

that separates the uh primary building

and the Carriage House on site uh and

then two on the first floor of the

carriage house and then the applicant

will also be securing six uh parking

spaces within the River Street Parking

Garage uh as part of this project um so

uh overall it's very similar to I think

a lot of the other uh conversion

projects the council has seen over the

years where we're taking these um former

office uh buildings that themselves were

previously res residences and were

converted um they're going back to uh

residential use um and uh in you know I

think contrast to some of the other

developments that we've had downtown the

applicant has been very proactive about

finding uh enough uh off street parking

uh for the potential tenants um and in

doing so is seeking to um you know

address some of the concerns that were

brought up by uh neighborhood residents

at the Planning Commission meeting um so

with that all being said the Planning

Commission uh recommend amended that

city council approve the proposal with

the following conditions uh the

applicant will need to submit a formal

land development plan set containing the

formal cover sheet illustrating

requisite site aspects uh as opposed to

um a construction plan with only

internal space uh and addressing

comments from State departments um and

the applicant I believe is working on

getting that and I'm sure that will be

um finalized uh after city council

action uh and will include any comments

or any requirements that uh the council

members add to the project uh the

applicant will also receive a

certificate of qualification pursuant to

chapter 12101 of title 12 uh the

affordable housing certification uh

prior to recording the land development

plan with the Dolphin County Recorder

deeds and that will certify those two

units as affordable um if any other

exterior alterations are proposed other

than those included in the current

application and a previous previously

submitted building permit the applicant

will submit a certificate of

appropriateness application and receive

approval from harb uh and thus far um

they have gotten approval for a building

permit to begin some preliminary

demolition on the interior of the

structure and there's been uh some

discussion um with the contractors about

uh what types of uh work they're

proposing but uh so far uh through those

conversations uh they've just been

proposing to replace some of the glass

panes that are broken and otherwise do

some in otherwise do some in kind uh

Replacements of minor exterior elements

around the uh periphery of the building

uh and then finally the applicant will

coordinate the with the Department of

Public Works to ensure that the account

B is updated to reflect the proposed

change in use uh the Planning Commission

recommended that city council approve

the request for the following reasons

the applicant has received the requisite

zoning relief for approvals to proceed

with the project as proposed and that

was earlier last year in April of 2024

uh the proposed project will adaptively

reuse a vacant office building bringing

an historically architecturally and

culturally significant property back

into productive use and in fact will

reestablish a residential use on site um

as opposed to other multif family

conversions in recent years the

applicant has been proactive in securing

enough off street parking to accommodate

all residents of the development

obviating concerns expressed by nearby

residents regarding the limited number

of on Street spaces uh and finally the

proposed reuse will add new residents to

the neighborhood to activate the street

on nights and weekends and grow customer

based to support local

businesses thank you and this

application if we don't act it will be

doomed to approve January 30th right uh

off the top of my head I'm not sure uh

the um uh Miss Cameron's telling me it's

the 31st 31st okay thank you um okay if

I apologies to the applicant to canc you

so if you don't mind introducing

yourself and giving us a brief

description of the project when we

intend to start when do you think it

will be concluded has the property been

vacant and if so for how long and um the

two affordable units are they the single

the one bedroom or two bedrooms or mix

of both so if you could just briefly

share us share with us your the vision

for your project uh good evening

everybody my name is Vernon Jones I'm

the owner at uh Front Street LS LLC

excuse me could you yeah get close to

the mic or as close as you can to the

micone I think is this okay okay thank

you good evening guys my name is Vernon

Jones uh owner at Front Street Lofts LLC

um I think it was you got a few

questions there but um

uh I think to answer the them in in in

order uh we have the two units that are

going to be um affordable those are two

one-bedroom units um that we have we

plan on starting work as soon as we get

approvals um we you know soon as we get

approvals we'll be able to get our

permits and and get started um on rough

plumbing and rough electric uh um was I

think there was one more question right

um sure

that yes how has the property been

vacant and if so for how long so it's

been vacant for three years at this

point I think uh it might be approaching

four because last year was at three so I

think it might be approaching four four

years thank you um so I'll open it up

now uh to my council members and I'm

going to start to the

far left which is councilman Jones thank

you uh councilwoman Daniels how you

doing today sir good doing well man um I

read through this man um first I just

want to say um I commend you on doing

this uh project here um of course we

need as much business as we can flowing

through uh the city of Harrisburg and I

think this is a step in the right

direction um um it's also bringing some

jobs with you correct that's right um

yeah I just think that this is a great

project man and um look forward to

seeing you uh succeed at the

that's all I have appreciate

that thank you um councilman Rodriguez

thank you madam chair uh thank you for

joining us this evening and I have no

further question well I have no

questions thank

you

thank Ross thank you councilwoman

Daniels um good evening to you both

thank you for being here um the

resolution was pretty straightforward

and um the answers that you gave so I

don't have any further questions I look

forward to seeing um what you produce

out of this and how it adds to the

community definely thank you thank you

president

Bowers thank you um I just had one

clarifying question related to the

affordable unit I wanted to ensure that

that meant

affordability uh related to the city of

Harrisburg versus uh dolin County's

median family income for sure yeah I

mean we own N9 buildings in the area and

we we specifically look out section A

tenants we this is what we do um so the

to answer your question it will be

affordable to the city to the people who

live in the city of Harrisburg um uh

versus Dolphin County okay well thank

you thank you for that um so with eight

units at least two would be deemed

affordable in our affordable housing

program so I was just just wanted to

clarify that that so thank you very much

for the consideration no

problem thank you um vice president

green thank you very much uh thank you

for being here tonight thank you for

bringing this project before us uh I

don't have any questions but I look

forward to seeing it come to to tuition

tuition thank you uh councilwoman Davis

thank you councilwoman Daniels I don't

have any questions thank you for

providing uh the construction there's um

parking and affordable housing that

comes with it so I think that pretty

satis much satisfies the city um so

thank you I look forward to seeing the

end product as well thank

you thank you um does anyone have any

last minute

questions

no thank you I can't

see okay thank you very much um I would

recommend that we add resolution 82 -224

to the next legislative session and

recommend that um we approve the project

and and that's it for the um the

business of this committee today thank

you thank you um we will now move

forward with our meeting agenda next we

have public comment um if you're

interested in offering public comment

please state your name and your address

for the meeting record if you don't feel

comfortable sharing your address please

share the vicinity in which you live

within in the city uh you will have four

minutes to share your comments Mr Parker

will serve as our timekeeper I will

begin to my right is there anyone that

would like to offer public

comment okay seeing and hearing no one

anyone in the middle

section seeing and hearing no one anyone

to my

left oh I'm

sorry okay

well there was someone else that sit up

on the left side of the room so um you

can

follow our comments

hello my name is Ken Miller I've been in

here plenty of times I'm from Harrisburg

I will say don't have a specific place

I'll just say Harrisburg period because

that's I'm all around um I want to start

off by saying Lamont Jones

congratulations last time I was here I

spoke on you being presented with

lawsuits and you I don't feel like you

deserve that and I feel like if

everybody would like to open up their

doors they might as well open them you

feel me okay um but I'm here to tell you

that um this here is bigger than you

right so I you to shake this table okay

shake it the community um that you state

that you're here for okay um you've been

in

facilities surrounded by snakes so I'm

sure you know how to move and this

Podium ain't no different

okay um president Bowers Rodriguez green

Daniels um you guys are going to end up

telling on each other um there's a lot

of things that go on behind the scenes

when these C are off okay

um I consider this there's so much

corruption and you guys took vows and

Oaths and sworn

in to open up these doors and

speak you know I mean not just be meant

for a seat you can pass the torch to

anybody

um but I will continue to speak on the

corruption in my city including Wanda

Williams the police department and

police commissioner Carter the

intimidation tactics are

trash it's not gonna ever make me shut

up I've been shot for saving kids I've

been stabbed for saving

them I teach them and I don't even have

any but they don't have to be mine for

me to support them I speak for the

homeless I speak for people that have no

voice I speak for the victims and all I

was meant with was

disrespect so

what I'm going to say is for one thing

for a lot of people that wanted to run

me out this city this is my city and I'm

going to leave when I want to it didn't

stop me from starting a business it

didn't stop me from writing a book it

didn't stop me from achieving any goal

that I ever wanted to to sit here and

see these people and come back in

here is that's not what I wanted to do

but I definitely wanted to congratulate

you and for marijua

Williams to feel as though her seat is

solid Tri to be a mayor she wouldn't

even be throwing shots she' be sitting

pretty but that mean but her closet door

is open the stuff doesn't go unnoticed

and I'm going keep continuing talking

I'mma continue to write and I'mma

continue to show up thank

you thank

you good evening members of City Council

and Harrisburg residents my name is

Cynthia Lee Watkins and I am here in

support of the

$250,000 that should rightly be due to

the Hines Senior Center I'm a senior I'm

a longtime lifelong taxpaying

home-owning resident of the city of

Harrisburg now I've been watching what's

been going on between the council and

the mayor and I don't always agree with

the mayor I don't always agree with the

councel but right now I feel like

council is using the senior citizens as

hostages in their fight with the mayor

and I must say as a senior citizen

living in the city and paying taxes I

don't like it and my neighbors don't

like it and Council needs to remember

that the majority of people who vote in

this city are senior citizens thank

you if you could stay behind oh that's

what I was going

yes if you could stay behind for this

meeting to be over we can have

conversation I would like to that thank

you thank you is there anyone else that

would like to offer a public

comment okay seeing and hearing no one

the time is

5:53 p.m. I will entertain a motion to

adjourn motion to adjourn is there a

second second thank you we stand a journ