with that i would like to call joseph jacobs to explain
the nature of the sign on behalf of the burlington county bridge commission
mr jacobs has been allowed to speak
Could you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
Joseph Jacobs, J-A-C-O-B-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Mr. Jacobs, can you please describe your role with regards to this project?
Yes. With respect to this project, on behalf of the Burlington County Bridge Commission, they
On behalf of the Burlington County Bridge Commission, they brought me on board to help with the management of this sign.
And essentially, the overriding purpose is a public purpose.
They want to be able to place on the sign information that deals with the bridge, that deals with emergencies, whether those emergencies be amber alerts, silver alerts, gold alerts, and really emergencies that deal with the city of Philadelphia.
We are able to create a situation with your police department that if there is an emergency, that in real time we're able to place information on the digital billboard to help serve the public.
And in addition to that, we met with the Tycone Civic Association. And if there's any real emergency in this specific area, again, the commission would be able to place that emergency on the billboard in real time.
And in addition, the Bridge Commission has also indicated to the community, the Tycone community group, that if they have events that they like to get out to the public to promote public activities, that they would also place that information on the board.
And the third prong, with respect to advertising, the revenue would go into the general fund that would help with the maintenance and upkeep of the bridge.
Thank you.
Does the board have any questions for Mr. Jacobs?
board any questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman yeah yes mr chairman um so is this
an is this an agreement that is already going to be in place um with the drpa to escrow the funds
to service the bridge so the drpa is a separate authority than the burlington county bridge
commission and i believe that mr jacobs can explain further about the funds yes the the
funds would go into the general fund of the burlington county bridge commission
and would be dedicated for maintenance and operation of the bridge
so it will help the burlington county uh bridge commission offset some of the costs
with the funds going over absolutely yes okay all right no further questions mr chair
questions from the virtual audience
um actually i have um another i have two more witnesses mr bergman okay go ahead okay um
I'd like to call Lucky Warrick.
He is with the Watchfire Digital Outdoor Sign Company.
And I'd like him to discuss the specs and the light impact.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
He has been allowed to speak, sir.
State your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter.
Wyrick, and the spelling is L-U-C-K-Y-W-Y-R-I-C-K.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Lockie, can you hear us?
Mr. Wyrick?
I think we lost him.
Can you hear me?
Do you affirm or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Proceed, Dawn.
Okay, could you put your address on the record?
Watchfire Sign's primary address is 1015 Maple Street, Danville, Illinois, 61832.
okay and what is your position with the company my position is the senior territory manager
for the billboard division okay and what is your role with my role
yes i'm sorry with regards to this property 5201
yes i'm sorry with regards to this property 5201 levick
using our advanced technology and i can speak to the specifics of that okay yes can you discuss
the specs that you've prepared and the light studies and the impact of the sign if any on
surrounding area? Yes, I can. We have created the newest technology which narrows the viewing angle
of the actual output of the sign to roughly 60 degrees. That's 30 degrees on each side
of the sign which alleviates any viewing points outside of that perimeter.
Okay, and can you just describe the impact on the surrounding areas, for example, any
impact that this sign would have on the school or the park?
Can I share the screen?
i'm sorry um did he request to share the screen yes so mr hand can you promote him
to a panelist please thank you
Sir, you are muted.
You'll just have to unmute yourself.
Can you see my screen now?
Okay so this particular technology is advanced and reduces the radius of the light output.
As you can see from this diagram here and this light study that we've produced, this
is one viewpoint and this is the other viewpoint.
In comparison, if we were not to use this technology, this would be the viewing.
So you can see it dramatically reduces the viewing area.
So does your light mitigation technique eliminate any impact to the school or the park?
That is correct.
It does eliminate any and all light impact to the school or the park.
Thank you.
Do you have anything further to add?
Yes, I have. The technology is advanced. I can show you this in another window of how it actually displays.
Can you see my screen here?
Do you see just the plane watch fire technology on the screen?
I believe, sir, you might need to unshare and then share again.
where do we go to
meeting controls
here we go
we can see that video just outlining our technology and then i have another video that i can share
go ahead
this is an actual drone shot of
that it reduces the viewing angle down to 30 degrees so as you commute past the sign
it starts to erase the visible end of the sign you see how it clouds up and disappears
and now you're at 30 degrees and the sign completely disappears
And now you're at 30 degrees and the sign completely disappears.
This other side is a static side, which is not applicable to this application.
Okay, I'll show you one more.
Thank you.
Mr. Warrick, can you just describe what the video shows for the record?
I can. Essentially, this is an animated version of what I had shared earlier. It's reducing
the footprint of the lag output.
Thank you for that.
And does the board have any questions?
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Do you want to proceed, Dawn?
Yes, and with that, I would call my last witness,
John McDonough, a land use planner. Mr. McDonough has been allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter? Yes. Hi, Mr. Chairman. My name is John
McDonough, M-C, capital D-O-N-O-U-G-H. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Proceed. Mr. McDonough, can you describe
your occupation? Sure. I am a land use planner with the National Certification under AICP,
the American Institute of Certified Planners. I've been practicing for 35 plus years
and have been accepted as an expert before this commission in the past and in courts as well.
okay and what is your role with regards to 5201 levick street
well we conducted a standard planning analysis in connection with the application we review
existing conditions we review proposed conditions we review the regulatory requirements
under the city code and apply the criteria for the relief that our applicant is seeking here
and you've reviewed this application can you tell us if there are any other viable uses for this
property no it's really at the heart of the application here this is a site that is in your
icmx your industrial commercial mixed use district which is aimed at very low impact industrial uses
neighborhood commercial type uses residential given the fact that this particular site
is bisected by the bridge. We've got utility land related to the bridge commission on the one side
and on the other side as well. There is certainly a practical difficulty or a hardship
in terms of utilizing this space for as-zoned uses.
Can you tell us what impact, if any, there is on the park or school?
sure i think we have an excellent predicate of evidence before the board now as to the i'll say
typical concerns that we may have with this particular land use we are here for refusals
related to the proximity to those parks in the school and i think you have good evidence before
you now to support the claim that the impact would be minimal if any particularly with respect
to the brightness and the lighting. The park or the ball fields to the north will face the nose
of the sign and you just saw Lucky's exhibits showing how the light recedes as one starts to
take advantage from the nose of the sign and then the park to the south faces the back of the sign.
take advantage from the nose of the sign and then the park to the south.
So again, not looking at the face of the sign per se, I think this use and this
orientation is optimally located on this particular piece of land.
Okay, and is there any concern that there are other signs on the other side of the bridge?
No, again, there's good separation between those signs.
There is a sign on the other side as well.
But again, there's no direct correlation between, I'll say, the number of billboards and driver distraction, safety, and the like.
As we drive, there are objects that direct our attention all around us.
And again, no conclusive study that this particular land use would have an adverse impact from a driver safety standpoint.
Okay, so on that note, following through on your testimony, would there be any impact on traffic?
No impact on traffic. This is obviously a functionally innocuous land use.
It certainly doesn't generate any traffic, and from a driver visibility standpoint, this is not going to impede safe lines of visibility and not create a substantially adverse distraction to drivers as well.
As we drive, we may glimpse, but we don't fixate on these signs.
Thank you. And is there anything else that you'd like to add, Mr. McDonough?
Well, obviously, important to this application, which makes it somewhat distinctive, are the beneficiaries of the application.
Not only the traditional beneficiaries of being business.
I mean, this certainly is a somewhat unique form of land use in that it serves a communication purpose, much like a cell tower does.
This just happens to communicate the written word that certainly benefits business.
The companies we work for, we work with, companies we invest in are all beneficiaries of that.
Likewise, institutional uses, religious organizations, higher education, educational type uses.
And then, of course, you heard through Mr. Jacobs' testimony, the benefit of real-time messaging and emergency alerts that become an arm or an instrument of law enforcement and emergency management service,
or which serve a paramount public purpose as well.
And then lastly, most importantly,
is that the direct beneficiary of this particular sign here
is the bridge commission with these proceeds
that will help offset those maintenance costs
and those construction costs that are associated
with keeping the free flow of traffic across the bridge.
Thank you.
Are there any questions from the board?
or is that your case um yes i would just add that um we do have a letter of non-opposition
from the taconi civic association any any more questions from the board no mr chairman and mr
chairman questions from the virtual audience or comments mr chair i have mr lennon water
with his hand raised i will allow him to speak at this time
uh hello thanks uh leonard you've already been sworn so just speak sir okay great thank you um
again leonard reuter senior attorney for the city of philadelphia i was made aware of this matter
uh pretty late uh in the game uh actually pretty much as it was going on i wasn't present at the
zoning board um the planning commission of course is going to make the recommendation that they're
going to make, and that's separate and apart from my immediate concerns here, because what
I would caution the board against is making a decision based upon any argument, any legal
argument regarding whether or not the Burlington County Bridge Commission is exempt from the
zoning code or shares the same legal status or legal exemptions that the solicitor's opinion
in the uh from you know a number of years ago uh where it was determined that drpa was exempt from
at least certain zoning code provisions and the reason why i caution you against that is because
to the extent that um that argument is being offered uh that appeal should have at least
been listed as an appeal against lni um and since we had no notice that uh at least
formal modus through the application for appeal, we were
formal modus through the uh application for appeal we were i certainly wasn't prepared and and any
potential witnesses for the city were not prepared to address any legal arguments regarding uh
exemptions from the zoning code for uh bcba for bcbc so um now if again the planning commission
is going to make its recommendation on the variance uh i understand that ms tancredi has
at least put an argument on the record to preserve it in the event, you know, for whatever
reasons in the future, if it needs to be preserved for potential appeal. But, you know, again,
I would just caution the board against making a decision based upon any exemption claim. If you
did feel that you needed to address an exemption claim, then I would have to ask for a continuance
on that matter. But I would note that the appeal itself does not indicate that it was an appeal
against L&I. And again, I understand Ms. Tancredi wanting to raise the exemption issue at least
obliquely or to get it in the record. So that's what I have to say now. Again, I think it's
okay for the board. The city wouldn't object to the board making a decision simply on the
merits of the of the variance itself but but we would we wouldn't strongly urge you not to make
any decision based upon any arguments about the exemptions thank you we understand sir thank you
for your for your input um anyone else in the virtual audience there are no other hands mr
chair planning commission good afternoon chair bergman members of the board david fecto city
planning commission but we wanted to start by just reminding you that the benefits agreement
signed with the neighborhood association is not enforceable by the city so it will not it will