that do own that are long-term residents I speak to them on a daily basis we've talked about it
they were given the invitation to the VCO to the hearing and there's no I don't have any pushback
or any negative I mean you know it doesn't affect them negatively in any way
is there a curb cut there oh yes the property came with a curb cut
and is that how you are pulling the car up to the side of the property like we saw in one of
the pictures is that yes through the curb cut off okay and so then what you're gonna do is put this
garage so that you you won't have that access anymore correct yes yep just to utilize that
because you know it it has a you know it has a full driveway i didn't change anything other than
that just making the garage in the back bigger because there was one there already when i
purchased the home okay all right thank you other questions from the board
questions questions from our attorney
not at this time mr chair sure is there an issue with a deed okay okay all right
um questions or comments from the virtual audience or this current audience here
i do not see any hands raised mr chair any commission amy board with the planning commission
amy boyd do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
I do. Please proceed. The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current RSA 3 residential single family. The request of deviations from the dimensional standards are de minimis. The planning commission recommends that the board grant their requested variances for setback and occupied area.
m i 2025 005 400 77 89 craig street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
thank you sir thank you
And my 20, 25, 0, 0, 4, 4, 7, 1, 4, 10. Oh, 1, 66 Avenue.
Um, Mr. sorry, I just wanted to let, you know, um, we just got a letter.
sorry i just wanted to let you know um we just got a letter um from the rco in that matter um they
um so they are in support of a one-year temporary variance for removal of the proviso
um yeah this one here yes oh okay yes that's that's all right thank you that was uh yeah just
got that thank you I take it Andrea is not doing this case counsel could you
please state your name and spell for this than I refer can't hear you all right
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members.
Anybody want to get a little closer?
You've got all your stuff there.
Good afternoon, members of the board.
Mr. Chairman, Brett Feldman, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103.
B-R-E-T-T, Feldman, F-E-L-D-M-A-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel, could you tell us, identify your client, a relationship to this property?
Yes, I represent the owner, McDonald's Corporate, the owner of this property, and with me also is the franchise operator of the McDonald's.
Right, right. And you just heard the results of the RCO hot from the press here, right?
I did.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we did.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
I think you can share your screen and proceed with your case.
I don't have to come up yet to share screen.
There we go.
We're coming back in soon.
Great, great.
All right, try that again.
Try that again.
Okay, let's try that again. Thank you. So a good afternoon. Again, Brett Feldman. Real proud to
represent McDonald's corporate. And on behalf of Alex Ortiz, he is the area construction manager
for McDonald's. He might look familiar. He's been here on multiple other McDonald's locations
in the last couple of years, as well as this location back in 2024 when we were proposing
this location, which has now been constructed. I also have Daisy Maldonado, who is the vice
president of operations for AJ Foods. AJ Foods is the franchise operator for McDonald's. I think
it's about 80 or 90 percent of McDonald's are owned by franchise operators, not by corporate,
by, you know, local companies based here in the Delaware Valley, and AJ Foods is one of those
locations, and they operate this location. I passed up Exhibits 1 through 15, which I'd asked
to be incorporated into the record. I'll get right to it. We were here back in 2024 for this location,
1401 66th Avenue. It is on a heavy commercial strip of Broad Street at Old York Road and 66th
Avenue. Let me just go to those pages here. It's owned CMX 2.5 and right next to the diner that
used to used to be there across the street um here's just kind of orient you um right next to
dunkin donuts right next to a self-storage facility across just multiple auto repair
facilities at cbs across the street and at that time the application was this had been a
this had been a pizza hut that ultimately closed it had been a boston market that had closed and
by the time mcdonald's looked to redevelop this for its uh latest uh prototype state-of-the-art
prototype, it really had become a really negative on the community that was trash strewn.
uh a really negative on the community uh there was trash strewn um there was uh people in the in
the who had got into the former boston market we had closed it up there was fires um and the
proposal uh as we came in to the board back in 2024 uh was um a massive increase in landscaping
here um use mcdonald's most up-to-date prototype uh drive-through uh with a uh interior um area
to place the two. When you move like that, you're getting away from the mic. Yeah. I think I just
lose you here. Hold on one second. There you go. And what we proposed was, as you'll see right here,
we came in, proposed all this new landscaping, new prototype location, a tremendous amount of
cameras and security, state-of-the-art lighting, and this is what we looked at here, what you saw,
what you approved. There was some skepticism from the community just because of the past
operations here, and at that time we agreed to some limited hours on the interior operation of
the restaurant that we would not have the interior operate after 10 o'clock during the week and 11
o'clock on the weekends. And we also agreed that we would not, that the drive-through would close at
2 and then would reopen at 5. So 21 hours on the drive-through. And that was, McDonald's was very
sensitive to making sure that we worked with the community. We made it clear at that time that we
would operate, we would do our best, we would try to live up to all those expectations and goals
that we set for ourselves, and then we would revisit the application once we started operating
and saw what the demand was and that's really what we're here today uh for we have um i think
it's uh without without a doubt we have lived up to um everything we said that this was going to be
we added a tremendous amount of landscaping um beautiful beautiful store cameras lighting um we
hired from the neighborhood we did everything that we said we were going to do and here's just some
pictures from our grand opening uh when we actually had the district council person uh there um you
see it almost it almost looks like a park at this corner now uh which was completely different than
what was there before and what we've learned you know i'm just going through you know these these
are these are in the fall uh when the trees were still hadn't uh you know where the leaves had
fallen but it was really a huge upgrade there um here's the picture from the from the grand opening
with the councilman and what we're asking for now is um to expect not to change those interior hours
We would still close at 10, we would still close at 11, you know, Monday through Thursday, or 11 on Friday to Sunday.
But the hours of operation on the drive-thru, instead of ending at 2 a.m., we would just stay open 24 hours on this drive-thru here.
You know, as we've learned, there's a tremendous amount of demand on this corridor from, you know, shift workers, folks in the hospitals.
We've learned that that demand, we can operate and we can do it in a safe manner.
A.J. Foods has how many, Daisy, how many locations does A.J. Foods have?
A total of 31.
31, including in Philadelphia, they have five locations.
Here's four of the locations that all operate with 24 hours without incident that have been run very well.
And, you know, we know that we can do this. We have been doing it at this location. We haven't had any issues with police there or crime at this location.
And, you know, the biggest challenge we're facing there is we now have employees who drive-through closes at 2 a.m., we clean up, then the next shift comes in at 4.30 or 5 to continue to then operate the store.
So we're sending our employees out at night.
It would be much safer for us from an operational, from an employee, to be able to keep them there throughout that shift.
And that's part of what we're looking to do here.
We have spoken with the community.
There was an initial letter of, I think the first vote was almost split.
It was like 8 to 10.
and what we were told and there's another letter that just came in i think which said the vote was
10 to 11. what we basically were told was hey you guys exceeded expectations it looks better
you're hired from the neighborhood um the cameras are are you know the work you spent the money on
that um we're just concerned about the future are you going to really continue to live up to
you know about the high standard that you've set um so what we're proposing um is would be a five
So what we're proposing is would be a five year. We would come back again in five years. AJ Foods and Daisy's company would continue to live up to these expectations. We know that we've got that that five year on us and then we would come back. I think the letter that we just received from the community was a one year with support for a one year.
problem with the one year is we basically have to file the application tomorrow to come back
in on the one year um so we don't really have a disagreement now about how well we've operated
there um and you know that's really that's kind of where we are um daisy could we could i could
go to witnesses if if you would like sure yeah you want to which who do you want to first yeah
daisy can you give the board your name i could you please state your name is spelled for the
stenographer? Daisy Maldonado, D-A-Y-S-Y. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Counsel? Yes. And you are, what is your role
with AJ Foods that is the franchise operator for this location? I am the VP of operations for the
franchisee. And with regards to this location, what is your responsibility? I make sure that
you know the employees are safe uh not only the employees but also the customers uh definitely
that's the top priority and also making sure that community that we feel part of the community as
well great and just just briefly i mentioned um the cameras that you installed the lighting um
all those you know safety training can you just briefly describe you know how the how the location
operates of course uh we have uh about like 36 or 38 channels uh located in the entire restaurant
it's not just inside but it's outside covers the entire property uh we have safety uh training
going on as an ongoing basis for our employees how to be escalate issues and also we um have created
a good relationship with police officers as well in the area as of right now we haven't had any
incidents um and it will look to continue that way yeah and just briefly why are you here today
to to try to expand the hours from 2 a.m on the drive through to 5 a.m so a couple of things i
will say is that number one safety of our employees i wouldn't want my people to be uh leaving the
restaurant at 2 30 in the morning but number two also it's a way to offer another choice to the
you know uh the people that work overnights and whether going for a launch shift or coming back
from a loan shift is something to be available for them great is there anything further that
you wanted to add to me no I think we are we're good okay thank you anything else no okay no
questions from the board yeah I have a question I have a question for the drive-thru if it stays
open 24 hours are individuals allowed to go through the drive-through get their
food and park in the parking lot and eat yes however as you could see in the
picture we have limited parking spots there yeah there's only I think there's
only a couple parking spaces that we we have here currently most of the most of
the business at this location is drive through. So we have not had any issues right now so far
with people loitering at the restaurant. Most of the businesses is folks coming through. It's a
tremendous amount of Uber Eats who are servicing the community and also some of the other businesses
there. So it hasn't been an issue. And that's also why we have the cameras who have been operating
there yeah that was kind of along the lines of my question like what kind of assurance this was
i think the community's concern is that it's going to be a hangout um and like what other assurances
can you give the neighborhood that at you know after two there would be you know wouldn't be a
hangout whether it's signage you know no lording or whatever yeah or a monitoring other than uh
cameras yeah what we've actually found is when we're open in the restaurant there's eyes on the
property and it's actually it's actually much better to have the the restaurant lit employees
inside um you know we we monitor the cameras remotely but we've got folks who are monitoring
the cameras right as it's open and that's it's it's almost counterintuitive that um we don't we
don't have this isn't a big parking field i mean some of the restaurants you see 30 40 50 spaces
this is i think there's six or seven spaces out there they're very tight with the restaurant with
restaurant but it's been um operating we have eyes right there employees right there um and if
there's you know any issues we're right there versus you know people coming in when we're closed
you know people coming in when we're closed um so it's been counterintuitive it's better
um so it's been counterintuitive it's better
that we're open versus not open and and that was what the community said that too it was
you know i was expecting we go to a meeting and people like oh well i know there was this issue
there hasn't been there hasn't been and at the same time i understand hey there's always the
future and that's why you you know we got into this discussion with the community we've had
I think three meetings now with the community about some different options on a temporary.
McDonald's has been tremendously supportive of this at the corporate level and at the local level
to say, hey, we're going to continue to have that condition on us that we've got to prove every day
that we'll continue to operate this store.
And that's why we're fine with that five-year temporary.
well not fine but it's it's it's you know we're trying to work with the community that's really
what we've been doing here yeah okay any other questions questions for attorney
um not a question but just um i would just ask the board if we could hold this under
advisement because i do want to look at depending on what the board's decision is
the provisos that have been requested both by the RCO and by the by the applicants so okay yep
um questions or comments from the virtual audience or this audience here
yes chair I have a hand up from Weymouth Cargill I will promote them and they should be back in
shortly.
hello hi sir could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer
sure my name is weymouth cargill 10th ward president of the rco
okay could you spell your name for the w-a-y-m-i-t-h last name is cargill c-a-r-g-i-double-l
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed.
The conversation here is somewhat of an untruth as far as our community.
Our conversation is about the community.
We had the meeting, the RCO meeting with the community present,
and the conversation came down to providing security due to the fact that
a possibility of loitering, younger kids gathering and causing all kind of, I mean,
havoc if possible. And the response was, they don't think it's necessary to have security on
property, which is, I can't see that happening or not happening if this is supposed to happen.
And we also submitted a letter regarding a, not a five year, but a one year proviso and
come back to the table to more or less discuss that. We do not want to 24 hours because, again,
I was just up there a couple days ago, and the kids were sitting on the cars in that said parking
lot that he just mentioned, just sitting on the cars, eating their McDonald's food. And that is