This request is for anyone who is opposed to this application. Please raise your hand.
I see no one chair okay thank you so Steve sounds like you can streamline okay with that
um Natalie could you pull up I mean have you been able to give Mr. Mancini and Mr. Dufino
status just uh whoever wishes needs to raise their hand all right so the two vince's
please raise your hand and we can get you on
mr vince uh mancini there's mr dofino
hello everyone who else do you need just vincent mancini okay he's promoted just vince and vince
and that's it yeah the two vinces right all right thanks thank you very much tanya and natalie if
you could put up uh the exhibits pages at 62 and 63 so we have the an aerial
here we go so the proposed sign would be put where the the blue area is we are as you can see from
this sign from this diagram we're at least 4200 feet away from the nearest residential area but
the important thing is that between our the residential area and our building our sign
location. We've got all the parking lots of Citizens Bank, the Xfinity Live, Citizens Bank
Park, and other things that intervene. What we are in is we're in a I-2 industrial district,
which does allow an outdoor advertising sign, but for the fact that there's a prohibition
between the expressways and Darien Street. We're a half block away from Darien Street,
which is closer to the stadium to lincoln financial uh it is a remnant of the old food
distribution center district and we do have an ed ed duffy who is going to who would testify and
will summarize his testimony i'll have mr mancini summarize it very quickly but mr ed duffy was the
vice president for special projects for pidc and the manager of the food distribution center
And he could go into the fact that if you look at the Food Distribution Center's formation, it was to prepare and protect the historic character of the Food Distribution Center.
The Food Distribution Center, when the Produce Distribution Center moved out to Essington Avenue, ceased to have any historic character, and Ed could testify to that.
So, however, the remnant of a prohibition was kept.
However, the remnant of a prohibition was kept, that you still couldn't have an outdoor advertising sign.
We have also a David Babbitt, and we have his report, and Mr. Babbitt is a land planner.
Mr. Babbitt, during his testimony and his report, when we ask that, gets introduced and accepted,
says there are about nine other outdoor advertising signs on our side of 95.
we're on the east side and I mean west side and then the east side of 95 there are 14 signs we
are refused for a couple reasons one use variance because you're not allowed to have an outdoor
advertising sign in this district although essentially this is I would say the corridor
between the Walt Whitman Bridge and the stadiums where you do see as you're headed out to the
airport or back in from the airport, you do see that there are other outdoor advertising signs
so that we're not changing the essential character of the neighborhood by doing what we're doing.
We also are faced with, we have Mike Tantella who's our professional engineer who
crafted this exhibit that's in front of you to show you that Mike would talk to the safety
We need a height variance because we're going up.
And Natalie, could you get the sign detail?
It's just before these.
Oh, go back down.
Go back down.
Here's just an overview of where we are.
You see where we are?
That's us at 3670.
Next to us is 3660 where Novak Seafood is.
Next to that is 500 Pattison, which is a terminal for the Procacci brothers.
480 Pattison is a Wrigley Nut distribution center.
3655 South Lawrence is the other Procacci terminal.
And we have, can you show us that sign?
Detail.
It's in Tantella's.
It's A13.
Just to go into it a little bit more, here it is.
So we have to put up a sign at grade level on Lawrence Street that goes up above the I-95 road surface.
But we have to go above 65 feet instead of the 25 that you're allowed to the bottom of the sign
because there is an obstruction with the Broad Street exit sign as you're headed southbound on 95.
And I believe that we have that showing you at A10 just before.
So this is, I don't know if you can turn it.
I think the next one does better, the next picture.
This is as you're headed southbound, the arrow.
If you see in this picture that's before you, that is the sign that blocks.
So if we're headed northbound on 95, that if we were at the 25 feet, we'd be totally blocked by this existing sign.
So going up the extra feet that we need as the refusal states allows us to get above that.
Michael Tantella would testify that it's significant to do that because you don't want signs in the same plane so people would get confused when they're looking at it.
The digital sign will comply with everything in terms of, you know, it'll be eight seconds, it's low on maintenance and those kinds of things.
Real briefly, Michael Tantella would talk about the safety factors and all that, that it doesn't cause congestion in the public streets.
and people do understand where it's coming from and they get to see it and they needed a certain
amount of time so people can see it and understand it and not be distracted. Also, Jack Coyle, who is
a, John J. Coyle, who is a registered and licensed MAI as well as an former, as an industrial
developer and is also as a degree in land use planning, would testify about the hardship to
this property there is in your packet and before i forget we have a letter we have petitions of
support that were signed by um seven people who are immediate neighbors this is a significant
thing vincent defino was able to get us not one but two letters from city councilman why
this is in councilman kenyatta johnson's district but what is happening is mr cipollini as part of
Mr. Cipollini, as part of this, is taking down because the zoning ordinance says if you're going to put up a new sign, you have to take down somewhere else.
this is taking down because the zoning ordinance says if you're going
And what we're doing is we're taking down an existing roof sign on the Frida building, which I'm sure Chairman DiCicco knows because it was in his old councilmatic district at 1300 block of South Front Street.
And we're taking that roof sign down.
And what has happened is that, and that because we'd like to have a certain kind of commercial, a real estate residential development that we do have at our exhibits A31 through A31.
We have a whole packet of what we would propose, but the billboard, the roof billboard is getting in the way of the residential development of that neighborhood.
So we do have Brian Newswanger, who's on today, who would read a statement from the Penn Sports Civic Association as Brian's the zoning chair.
And I don't want to put words in his mouth, but it's basically as we can't tell you we're in favor of the new project.
However, we are grateful that and happy that the sign is is going to move because we have a residential community.
And with that sign being moved, our neighbors will probably allow us to give full consideration to the project.
So we also then have a letter from Councilman Squilla.
Steve, excuse the interruption.
Maybe it might be helpful if you just show that sign on Front Street, if you have a photo of that.
Yeah, we do.
That'll explain.
I mean, just the visual should explain what it is you're talking about.
I think we, Natalie, go to the very end of our A31.
And while we're waiting for that, I want to do a little housekeeping.
I want everybody to, we have a pre-marked exhibit package A1 through A33.
I would ask that I've read everything into the record, that we've introduced everything to the record,
and the board consider that all documents that are contained therein be included in our record.
So keep going to the end.
oh not to the end but before that is where we have
go up go up it's go up we do have that whole packet of what the
the exhibit looks like for Penn support keep going
Natalie can you keep going back it's at page
at 829 what it's a page 204 205 natalie there it is all right here you go i think that's what
chairman de chico wants everybody to see this is uh our exhibit 831 at page 204 and 205 but this
is the existing roof sign on the existing frida building the frida building used to be a vibrant
you know meat terminal it is no longer a vibrant meat terminal in fact they're basically at they're
they're out of there and so um if you look to the left of that picture that shows the existing roof
deck signs coming down that is what we're proposing uh mr cipollini is proposing to happen
at the frida site knock down the whole frida site we don't have approval for it but as part of this
whole thing to as in order to comply with the zoning ordinance and the zoning ordinance is sort
of working in this case for billboards because it says if you want to put something up new remove
something we're fortunate that this is the kind of case we can remove this sign and under the new
zoning code that went in and i still call it the new zoning code instead of the old zoning code
because i'm used to the old one too in 2012 roof deck signs rooftop billboard signs became really
taboo so we're getting rid of not only a billboard sign but we're getting rid of in this neighborhood
in pensport we're getting rid of a rooftop sign that's non-conforming and so the thought is if we
have mike tantella's zoning plan which is part of michael's exhibit list we can maybe just show
the board what the future sign will be it'll be a 20 by 60 v-shaped digital and uh can you go to
that most recent plan that we showed for michael
go down you know the sign plan that we had that's the original plan 120 i think you put it on 122
maybe let me just get my list flew away from me
let me just get my list flew away from me here it is so I mean again it's a detail we don't
really have a you know a simulation of the new sign for you to see but it would be a sign that
would be in the right up in the in the corner it's the farthest the way that we could make it
from the sign that's across the street at 3655, the Percocci sign.
And our problem is there's a sign on the other side of I-95 that's within about,
I got a Michael Tantello could say, it's probably about 200 feet away from us.
There's no other place we could move this sign on our lot and still not be next to somebody
across the way because philadelphia has the imposition of that you have to be 500 feet
from another sign no matter where it is pendot which will also oversee this you know because
we need to get pendot approval after if we are fortunate enough to get your approval today
uh pendot only will not allow you to be within 500 feet of the sign on the same side so that's
why we can't move any closer to the broccacci sign and that's why we've put it up in the up in
this corner um i think i think again i need to um again apologize for interruption so the purposes
of this hearing uh if you is there anything that you'd really need to get on the record in the
event that there's some uh just that all i want to do is possibly mr chairman have the mr ed
duffy mr jack coil and mr david babbitt uh you know um could be sworn and just say they heard
what i state what i babbled on the record they'll adopt it that'll that'll be good thank you and
then we'll end we'll rest i just wanted my board fellow board members to see the sign that was
being removed and right what what that was okay thank you right okay so if we could get tanya
In whatever order you want to give us, Edward Duffy, John Coyle, and David Babbitt, if you can get them all on, you know, and then they can all be, you know, here you can handle how you want to swear them in.
Yeah, when I said my board, I meant to say our board.
Sounds like I'm saying my generals.
Anyway.
Steve, you may want to summarize the hardship.
David Babbitt is the only one who had his hand up.
anyone who wishes to testify has to put their hand up.
Mr. Babbitt, please identify yourself for the record. First and last name. Spell your last name.
I am David Babbitt. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Oh, good. David Babbitt spelled B-A-B-B-I-T-T.
David C. Babbitt and Associates LLC. The address is P.O. Box 922 in Frazier, F-R-A-Z-E-R,
pennsylvania 19355 and do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do mr pollack david babbitt uh you we've submitted a report for you that we have at uh our
a16b uh you've heard what i've stated on the record uh do you adopt what i've stated that
did i say what uh is contained in your report do you adopt that as your testimony i do and uh
So didn't you specifically found that if you were to lay this out, this sign is set away from City Hall.
If you had to go to the Pico building at like 23rd and 24th Market, that's how far away this is from the nearest residential, correct?
That's the equivalent distance, correct.
All right.
And I'll ask that you take his report in.
Now, is Ed Duffy in?
Edward Duffy, are you on?
John Coyle? Jack Coyle? Hello? All right. Mr. Pollack, as an officer of the court,
I stipulate that your clients would adopt your testimony. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman,
members of the board. I don't mean to cut you short. I just want to make sure you,
whatever you need to get on the record in the event there's an appeal,
please feel free to do so. If you finish, then we'll get to the vote. One more thing. Vince
mancini do you want to state the hardship real quick real quick can we give vance vince mancini
all right we can get uh exhibit mr mancini you need to identify yourself with the records by
your last name and i'll swear you in yes my name is vincent b mancini n-a-n-c-i-n-i uh and i'm here
as co-counsel for keystone outdoor advertising thank you and you're swearing the firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed steve let me if
well vince is co-counsel so he'll just oh okay i'm sorry if it may please the board i'll try
to summarize the testimony of mr duffy uh mr tentel already i mean steve already stole the thunder on
Mr. Tantel already, I mean, Steve already stole the thunder on Mr. Tantel.
Vince, just state the hardship.
All right.
The hardship would be basically that this parcel is a leftover parcel from a 1962 taking for the I-95 roadway.
If we can put up Exhibit A9, I can use that as an explanatory basis.
It's in the beginning, Natalie.
Exhibit A9. That's it.
The orange portion was what was taken by PennDOT.
And it also included the taking of the cul-de-sac that was on South Lawrence Street.
So essentially, about 50% of the lot was taken, and the fronts on Lawrence Street, and basically the turnaround area, the cul-de-sac was taken.
So both this lot and Lawrence Street dead ends without any turnaround.
And the lot in question, the leftover portion, is simply too narrow.
It does not have enough turnaround area for any industrial uses in the I-2 district and for the truck traffic, the ability of truck traffic to turn around.
It has been undeveloped since 1962.
It basically is isolated.
It butts up against the I-95, which the roadway is 32 feet above level.
It also abuts up to the, on the western side, it abuts up to the parking lot for the Lincoln Financial Park Field parking lot, which is also 20 feet above the level of that lot.
It has been used sporadically for, you know, occasional parking and whatnot, but it hasn't been utilized for its intended I-2 district.
It used to have a spur on the western side, a railroad spur, and Mr. Duffy was going to testify
that this particular spur is no longer available, hasn't been available for years. It's been ripped
out and it no longer connects to the main switching station down at the Conrail lines,
which are now south of I-95. Essentially, every other development on that street,
or every other lot has been developed and Mr. Coyle was also going to testify that
those lots have been developed because they have the configuration, the size
and the ability to have circulating access to and from that facility.
And again, this property has not been developed or there was one attempt to develop it in 2009.
somebody got a building permit or building approval for a commercial industrial building
never built had to sell the property and mr coil would testify that it was because