-- what the community is talking about versus what they're agreeing to.
No. I'm going to read what he asked me to read first, and then we can go back to that part of it. The specific commitments, "PWD is committed to incorporating the items identified below into their design process, provided they do not compromise the Queen Lane water treatment plant core mission and security. " "Number 1, community meetings. PWD 240012, ETC. representatives will meet with EFCC leadership on a biannual basis beginning in 2025. " "B, PWD will continue to provide EFCC with regular updates and get updates and get -- and get feedback on water revitalization plan projects, including the upcoming Schuylkill River crossing, through email, community listening sessions, and water, water revitalization plan newsletters. Lighting --" and this is one where we were very detailed. " That's A. "B, PWD will adhere to the following design standards applicable to lighting, exterior -- number 1, exterior lighting will be shielded through the use of full cut-off fixtures so that they do not cast direct light beyond the property line next to the residential areas and public 240012, ETC. " "2, all light sources will be designed, located, and installed so that the light source is not visible from any residential district. " 10 "PWD -- and C, PWD will utilize best 11 practices as part of the design of the 12 reconstruction of Queen Lane water treatment 13 plant to help shield and -- the facility as it's 14 -- at its source and minimize nighttime impact on 15 neighborhood properties while meeting industry 16 standards and required security design. Number 17 3, fencing. " 20 "B, cyclone fencing may be used as 21 temporary fencing is required for security during 22 the construction phase. C, no new barbed wire 23 will be installed along the exterior perimeter of 24 the Queen Lane water treatment plant site. 25 Number 4, access drives and parking. A, all new 240012, ETC. permanent access drives will be on Fox Street. " "B, gates for vehicular access will be aesthetically consistent with exterior fencing. Number 5, stone walls. PWD will preserve and replace the existing exterior stone walls along Queen Lane. Number 6, natural planted buffers. " "7, sound controls. PWD will provide sound attenuation for new generators to not exceed five decibels above background level measured at the property boundary of the nearest occupied residential property. 8, historic preservation. " "B, PWD will incorporate the existing historical marker on the corner of Queen Lane and Fox as part of the Queen Lane Water treatment reconstruction project. Number 9, site setbacks. PWD will preserve the existing fence setback 240012, ETC. distance to the existing curb line along Queen Lane. See Exhibit B attached. " Now, after that, it, it talks about additional limitations. In the interest of time, it's basically saying that in line with the Homeland Security.
The tenets of what you said, we'll submit that in writing. And so, what, what -- on behalf of the chair, what I'd like to do, because we may lose quorum, is thank you for that. And then let's bring up the next people to testify. 240012, ETC.
If I could read the sentences that have not been included in the commissioner's testimony.
So what I'm saying is I want both renditions so that we can take a look at it. And we'll try to work over the week, Madam Chair, to figure out how we can - - what the differences are in what the community wants and what the Water Department is comfortable with, A. And then B, how do we safeguard, attach where applicable to assure the community at 10 years from now, other than what's in the record today, is considered? Give us a week.
Well, thank, thank you, Councilman. So, just a couple of things. The first is that Council president has appointed Councilmember Rue Landau to the committee so that we can make quorum. My apologies, but we are going to have to move things up rather quickly 240012, ETC. because we're going to lose that quorum and any ability to further conduct business. So what -- Councilman, Councilman Jones is going to convene the community, the East Falls Community Council, along with the Philadelphia Water Department to work out the community benefits issues that exist. And I, I can tell you that, you know, Councilman Jones is, you know, committed to making sure that that, that is going to happen because we certainly don't want - - I don't feel comfortable. I live a stone's throw from East Falls in Mount Airy. I don't feel comfortable with the idea of what's going to happen to what are essentially my neighbors and that they would be so inconvenienced for my benefit and for the benefit of, you know, everybody else in the city and that they have to just sort of, like, take one for the team. So Commissioner Hayman, I know that you probably agree, feel the same way and, you know, are going to be working towards finding a more suitable community benefits agreement that works for them. So what we're going to do at this time 240012, ETC. is, is sort of do things a little bit in reverse so that -- because I know we have a number of people who are here who want to testify. And we want to hear your testimony. But we are going to move forward and conduct the business of voting out these bills and then go back in to hear your testimony. And so, that's what we're going to be doing going forward. So give us one second, please. Okay. This is the public meeting to report bill number 240012. Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on bill number 240012.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And for the record -- thank you, Madam Chair. And for the record, we, we have a quorum for the meeting. The -- I move bill number 240012 reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation without a rule suspension.
Okay. The bill 23 has been -- well, I want to recognize that Councilmember Jones seconded the motion. It's been moved and properly seconded that bill number 240012, ETC. 240012 to be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation.
-- with a favorable recommendation. And further move -- no 8 rule suspension, no rules. And further move that the rules of council not be suspended to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of council. All of those in favor of the motion will be -- will signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes.)
Anyone opposed? The ayes have it, and the motion carries. And so, essentially, what that means is that the bill 17 has been voted out of committee with a favorable recommendation. However, it will not sort of be fast tracked, moved along until some of these other conversations with Councilman Jones happens. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on bill number 240159.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move the bill number 240159 be reported 240012, ETC. from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that rules of council be suspended and submit the first reading of this bill at the next session of council.
Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Jones seconds the motion. It's been moved and properly seconded that bill number 240159 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of council be suspended to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of council. All of those in favor of this motion will signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes.)
Is anyone opposed? No. The ayes have it, and the motion carries. Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla for a motion on bill number 240066.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that bill number 240066 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of 240012, ETC. council be suspended and submit the first reading of this bill at the next session of council.
Chair notes for the record that Councilmember Jones seconds the motion. It's been moved and properly seconded that bill number 240066 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of council. All in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Chorus of ayes.)
Anyone opposed? Nope. Okay. The ayes have it, and the motion carries. And, again, bill number 240192 is being held. Okay. So with that being said, we're going to go back to the public hearing. Thank you very much, Councilmember Landau, and have the next witnesses testify. I'm sorry. Did you have something else you wanted to add before you leave? Okay.
-- Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, and Councilmember Jones. Thank you very much. My name is Paul Boney, and I'm a zoning and land use attorney representing the East Falls Community Council regarding the proposed rezoning of the Water Department's Queen Lane water treatment facility. I guess I was going to ask you not to vote the bill out of committee. But it is a pleasure to see everybody this morning. " So, in a way, Mr. -- Councilmember Squilla, you had put your finger on the issue when you used the example of, will all your staging materials be on-site or would you need to be off-site? And actually, we don't think that's going to be a major issue. But you used that as 240012, ETC. an example, and you asked the deputy commissioner, would you be willing to agree to that? And you used the A word, agree to that. And that was the -- that was the part of the question that he was not really able to answer and talk about we're going to meet early and often and have a lot of discussions. And that really is -- the crux of -- the, the main crux of the disagreement between the parties and why we're here today is that the Water Department is willing to make some pledges and to say, yeah, we really want to do it this way with the lights and the fencing and all the rest. And we're really going to try and -- you know, but we're not willing to put it into an enforceable agreement. So that is one of the main impasses that we have. You know, I think when it comes to the, --and we really are talking, as Mr. Langer talked about the, the landscape buffer around the edges, the fence around the edges, the lighting around the edges. That's most of what we're talking about. And -- so let me get, get through my statement here. When East Falls Community 240012, ETC. Council hired me towards the end of last year, the request of me was very simple from the outset. This is why they hired me, to negotiate the language of a binding, enforceable agreement with the Water Department. The fact that it would be an agreement was not a question because all throughout last year, the discussions between the parties was that it would be an agreement, that it would be a community benefit agreement. And even in my materials, I gave you some excerpts from PowerPoint presentation that the Water Department gave to the RCO, where they used just that language, the language of agreement, community benefits agreement and whatnot. That is now no longer the Water Department's position. And I'll sort of paraphrase. We want City Council to -- we want you to make it so that the Water Department is held to its word. They told us they would enter into an agreement with us, and that's what they should do. We're more than willing to discuss the terms and the height and the this and that and the 240012, ETC. other. We could probably work that out. We think we gave them about three -- what, what, what the commissioner read to you was a good start. It was probably about a third of the things that we asked for, but, but it is a good start. There is a second part to our request. And the second part of our request is that the bill should be amended to classify the property as a master plan district. And that means that there would be a city-required master plan that would have to be reviewed and approved by Planning and reviewed and approved by City Council. That would give the district council person, City Council, but especially the district council person, some real leverage in the process. Master plan is not a finely detailed document, but it's your basic building blocks. And it can talk about the landscaping and the fence and the whatnot. And if there was a problem and -- then the council person would be in an agreement to sort of fix that problem. That leads me to a final -- leads me to 240012, ETC. a final observation. And the question is to -- why does this bill even exist at the present time?
And we don't really see a good reason why it even needs to exist now, this year, or even this decade. The project won't occur for many, many years out into the past. But if you wanted to proceed now, we would hope that it would at least be amended to include a master plan district that -- along with a signed agreement, we think would, would do the trick. We are certainly not interested to get even close to holding anything up, to compromising any sort of funding, to getting into what this plan -- the inside of this plan is and how they do all that. We don't really care. We're very proud as a community, as, as design professionals, architects, and as a community, incredibly proud of the history of the Water Department. We're really, you know, historically speaking, one of the proudest parts of this country's evolution in terms of water treatment and providing clean water. That's a tremendous legacy. We're happy that it's in our neighborhood. No one's -- no 240012, ETC. one's touching any of that. No one is touching any of this Homeland Security stuff. We know Homeland Security is going to trump anything that we're talking about. " We know that. I mean, we're not -- now, we're not trying to slow down or impede anything. We're certainly simply asking for reasonable protections about the edge conditions. If any member of this committee would be living in any of the homes that would be surrounding this facility, you would be here at this table asking for the exact same thing. So, really, thank you very much. We appreciate Madam Chair's leadership and, Councilmember Jones, your good ideas. I have a -- I do have a -- I don't know if I can ask a question of the committee, but if it -- since it's voted without the rules being suspended, does that basically mean that the council has some discretion as to when it 240012, ETC. actually moves through the rest of the process? That it could be two weeks, three weeks, maybe even more if, if, if it's in the discretion?
Yeah. It can -- it will move with the direction of the district councilmember.
I thank you so much for your time. We all thank you -- thank you.
Thank you -- thank you for your testimony. Yes. Please come forward. I believe your names were already called. Were your names --
-- just for. Okay. Well, just state your name for the record then.
It's on for me. Thank 240012, ETC. you. My name is Frances Bourne. I live in East Falls at the corner of Penn and Fox Streets. So I'm about a half a block from the water treatment plant and the revolutionary war cannon that marks the corner of Fox and Queen Lane, in case no one knows about that. So I thank you for this opportunity. I was once told a wise man said, "Your urgency is not my emergency." That gentleman was our own councilman, Curtis Jones, in a meeting with the Water Department. So I'd like to preface my, my little statement with that. I feel as if this is almost a moot point, but I'll continue. The change that the Water Department is asking for right now is neither an emergency or an urgency. And we've been told by the Water Department at different points, by different individuals that delaying consideration of this bill will not impact any aspect of this project, not its funding, not its planning, not its time line, not its consideration. So we're also receiving mixed messages from the Water Department. The residents and homeowners of East 240012, ETC. Falls will be significantly impacted by this project and deserve to be more than just a checklist on PDW's to-do list. Trust, trust is not an agreement any of you would accept, any more than we should. It's time for the Water Department to stop claiming its mission to provide clean water does not allow it to respect itself neighbors. We should all be committed to doing both. So we're only asking as this -- our other community members, is where the Water Department share -- and the community share common ground. I suspect none of you would want to look out your front door to see a chain link fence topped by -- topped by a parking lot, topped by barbed wire, a parking lot, or a transmission tower. And we don't either. We have collaborated with PDW -- PWD in the past and are only asking for the opportunity to do so again. The fencing and lighting required by Homeland Security that now faces Queen Lane illustrates that working together, it results in a project that both sides can and should be proud of. 240012, ETC. And there are other impacts here we're not even yet available -- aware of because there is no plan, the fencing and lighting required and how it affects our neighbors on the Abbottsford- Fall side and the Allegheny west side. They're not aware of this process. And we haven't had time to involve them in our efforts. So without due diligence now, it eliminates not only our voice but yours as well in the future, as that's been well explained. So I thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Thank you for your testimony. Chair recognizes -- thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed.
Good morning. I'm Bill 18 Hoffner, H-O-F-F-N-E-R. I'm at 31 on West Penn Street. Frances and I live together. She's my other half. Our house dates from 1904, so it's not much longer after the woodworks was founded on that block. And I'm not going to add -- I mean, I think the testimony on both sides has been great this morning. I think I'm better informed. I think you all are better informed. 240012, ETC. So I, I thank you for the time. I just want to -- I'm here to represent not just myself, but I've been coordinating some of the petitioning which Councilman Jones has been receiving. And so, I -- part of the things I submitted were the comments from of the 8 folks while we were gathering petitions, some of 9 the folks who actually took the time out to add 10 some comments. So I left that with your 11 documents. 12 I left a copy of the petition itself. 13 There's now 151 signatures of this morning -- as 14 of this morning -- or yesterday, late last 15 yesterday afternoon or evening, 11 o'clock. So 16 there's 151, 150 of which are for the 19129 ZIP Code. One is from 19144. So I want to thank the, the fellow East Falls folks who showed up this morning, took the time out. I appreciate their effort to come out this morning. It's -- everyone has work to do, and we're all busy. And I appreciate your time certainly very much. Thank you so much. And thank you. And again, I can't add anything further to the testimony. I think I'm impressed. I appreciate 240012, ETC. everything everyone has done this morning for us. Thank you.
Thank you -- thank you for being here. We appreciate you coming down this morning. Thank you so much. Can we have the clerk call the next panel to testify?
Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the record that has not been called? No. Okay. Oh, Councilman Jones. Chair recognizes --
Thank you -- thank you, Madam Chair for your indulgence. So what -- where we are is not as far as one might think. There are some conceptual community benefit agreements that -- the question is, how enforceable will it be in 10 years? And so, what we hope to do by passing this bill out of committee without, without a rule suspension is slow it down a little bit so that we can get the Law Department, get the Planning Commission to look at our options on enforceability, to look at that in a way that 240012, ETC. says, all right, without changing it, is there a way to do a separate agreement, a piece of legislation that is connected to the budget reviews that we might be able to do to give the community some sense of trust but verify? And so, with what you did today, Madam Chair, thank you for allowing us to pass it out but slow it down so that we can get that kind of conversation going. So thank you very much.
Thank you -- thank you for your willingness to bring everyone together and convene everyone so that we can find an arrangement, an agreement that everyone can live with. And, you know, we can just disrupt the quality of life for the residents as little as possible. So thank you so much. That being said, and if there's no one else here to testify, that concludes the business of this Committee on Rules for today. Thank you all very much for your attendance. Thank you. (The meeting was adjourned.) 240012, ETC. CERTIFICATE OF TRANSCRIPTIONIST I, MARY KARANJA, Legal Transcriptionist, do hereby certify: That the foregoing is a complete and true transcription of the original digital audio recording of the proceedings captured in the foregoing matter. IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 26th day of May, 2024. ______________________________________ Mary Karanja