the audience no hands at this time planning commission thank you chair and good morning
david vecto with the city planning commission chairman of board members the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the rsa3 residential single family zoning at this location
the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1977 at that time this block retained its original 1933
single-family attached zoning the proposed personal services will not injure the use
of adjacent properties so the city planning commission recommends the board grant the
proposed use variances for personal services and for multiple principal uses so mi2026 000185
240 East Highland Avenue. I vote yes with proviso. Hours limited to daytime and no signs.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso.
Tynetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Brian McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Iowen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you.
All right.
Number 14, MI-2026-002-570-3144 West Pachonk Avenue.
They're being promoted to panelists there.
Thank you very much.
Councilor, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good afternoon, members of the board. Hercules Grigos. H-E-R-C-U-L-E-S-G-R-I-G-O-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel, could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Hercules Grigos, representing Bellwether District Holdings, owner of 3144 Passionc Ave, known as the Bellwether District.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
We have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
do all right thank you you can share your screen to proceed with the case great thanks so much um
i have with me today uh my partner catherine missomer um as well as jake mendenhorpe from
pannonia engineering uh we're here today seeking a technical variance for our project
on a portion of the property known as pad 14 which is consists of approximately 75 acres
which consists of approximately 75 acres of the Bellwether District in southwest Philadelphia.
Site is approximately, as I said, 75 acres bounded by 26th Street to the east,
our new entrance on Hart Tramp Street to the north, as well as Penrose Avenue to the south.
This portion of the site has been approved and under construction for a 1.4 million square foot facility to house beverage manufacturer Drink Pack.
Drink Pack chose Philadelphia to serve as its East Coast operation and location.
We're excited to move forward with this, the first tenant on the industrial portion of the Bellwether District.
As you may know, the site is currently under construction and moving swiftly to make our deadline to transform this former refinery.
We're here today with a technical variance to reduce the parking count of the site.
The site is zoned I-3, and essentially, the parking count really doesn't meet the needs of how buildings are operating today.
The building is approved for approximately 1.4 million square feet.
This is a drink pack chose Philadelphia for its East Coast operations.
The code's outdated parking requirements for industrial warehouse uses really don't anticipate over a million square feet of construction.
Based on the size of the building, the code requires 1,009 parking spaces.
Just flip to the site plan here.
This is well in excess of what's needed to operate the site. As you can see in the plan top right, that is where approximately 500 plus parking spaces are going adjacent to our office. And then code required this area here, an additional 400 plus parking spaces in this area, which we think are redundant and unnecessary.
For reference, at the onset, we expect to have 30 employees each shift, which is approximately 12 hour shifts plus 20 office employees Monday through Friday, and at max build out, we'll have 75 employees on site plus 50 office employees.
So, considering shift change, what we think is max capacity, we'll have approximately 200 employees accessing the site at peak times given shift change.
And this really doesn't even take into account modal splits and public transportation.
As such, we think the 1000 plus parking space required by the code is not appropriate use for the site.
We're proposing 585 spaces, which is more than adequate to accommodate our parking needs.
We've revised our plans.
Here's the revised plan. I'll show you the landscape plan here.
As that's loading. We revised our plans on site to take this additional parking and add landscaping in the 400 spaces. We're going to landscape that area and we're going to maintain.
Okay, I'm having technical issues, I'll check it out, but basically we're we're the code
requires a tree buffer along the parking we're going to maintain that tree buffer and landscape
that area this will reduce the sea of asphalt reduce heat island effect and really have
diminished impact on the use of the site also reduce the amount of pervious coverage and improve
our stormwater management we're seeking a variance to make this reduction and we're here asking for
your support i would just say it's the minimum relief necessary will not alter the essential
character of the neighborhood as the use is permitted and reduction in parking to increase
the landscaping will only benefit this i3 industrial site will not impair appropriate
uses or development or adequate light and air to adjacent properties will not substantially
increase congestion in fact less parking less cars have the benefit to the area
and it will not be detrimental to the neighborhood as evidenced by our letter of support from the
coordinating rco uh i have sure jake here from pannoni with any questions
Sure. Jake here from Pannoni with any questions.
Is he going to adopt your testimony or do you have anybody else that would do that?
My team is on their way, but Jake can adopt my testimony if that's helpful.
Sure. Why don't you come up?
Jake, state your name for the record.
John C. Medendorf the Horth.
Hi, good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Absolutely. So John C. Medendorp IV, J-O-H-N-C-M-E-D-E-N-D-O-R-P.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Counsel?
Jake, you're the civil engineer for the project?
Have you heard my testimony today?
I did.
And do you adopt it as your own?
All right. Questions from the board?
so this was a by right project originally and that's why the parking requirement was yes because
part of the part of the approvals yes so as part of um you know drink pack was coming to philadelphia
we moved quick to meet the um timelines so we proceeded with the by right project and
proceeded to construction and we came back once we realized that the additional parking was really
redundant and reducing the parking just improves the site adding more landscaping as a benefit
so you're proposing almost half of the parking requirement that the code says we're proposing
half but as i said about half yeah um but as i said um the um the industrial district code really
really contemplated um you know post-world war ii um you know assembly line um workers
and that's how they came up with their parking requirements um if you're familiar with any of
the drink packets very automated you know assembly lines much more automated more warehouse workers
and much more space.
So, you know, if it was an old knitting mill in Kensington back in the day,
you would have had many more workers and maybe a 50,000-square-foot building.
But in this case, a lot of it's automated.
So while we do create a lot of jobs and, you know,
I think there's 270 permanent jobs at full build-out,
the shift changes and max is about 200 employees coming in and out.
So you're still going to really only be using about a quarter of what the code says?
That's correct.
been solid and and one other thing that's important to note um this area um if in the future
the site there's a change in use um it's easily convertible back to parking that's why we we left
the tree line the tree buffer in for the parking and if we had to come back and add parking from
where we can easily add that um and just replace the landscaping okay and are you using pervious
surfaces or are we doing impervious so there's um on the on the portion that we're removing it will
be landscape pervious surface um okay the rest of the asphalt i believe is impervious but we have
massive stormwater management systems that jay can kind of go and deal with basins yeah we're
managing all of our stormwater as required by the code all right thank you any other questions
our attorney yes uh lynn reidel here for board council you mentioned revised plans i just want
to make sure um have there been changes since you submitted them to ellen i mean when i was
when i was speaking of the revision i meant the appeal and the filing the refusal we received
just want to make sure because that means something else okay i'm just wondering about
that thank you questions uh from the virtual audience no hands at this time chair planning
commission
thank you chair and good morning david effecto with the city planning commission
chairman of board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the i3 heavy industrial
zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1973 in a council supported map
change the appellant wishes to reduce the required number of parking spaces by almost half
the zoning codes parking requirement for warehouses was created before the current
trend to replace workers with machines considering the reduction in required workforce caused by
automation the city planning commission recommends that the board grant a proposed reduction in the
required number of parking spaces thank you david i'm sorry chair to interrupt a hand went up from
dominic long from council's office sure you're allowed to speak hello good morning mr long could
you please state your name and spell it for the stomographer yes dominic long d-o-m-i-n-i-c-l-o-n-g
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
I'm here on behalf of the 2nd District Office of Council President Johnson, just saying that we support this project, or the very, should I say.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it.
So, MI 2026-002-570-3144 West Pass Shonk Avenue, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
i am mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes layla bb my vote is yes thank you
you guys are doing great work down thank you so much this is incredible it's just
it's a game changer we're excited to get it moving thanks so much right sure
is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called
hercules good to see you good to see you good to see everybody is there anyone in
the audience whose case has not been called
no hands at this time chair okay um see everyone at two o'clock and thank you very much
I'm good yourself.
How many people in the audience?
Oh, good.
Thank you.
good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of the zoning
board of adjustment with me is our vice chair tenetta graham president mr chairman our board
secretary cheryl l gaston president mr chairman board member michael johns president mr chairman
board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman and i also have with us our board member layla
Beebe, who is our new board member on the end here. I've introduced her several times now.
We are very fortunate to have her. She's a business agent for the Carpenters Union,
and she definitely understands the construction project, so we're very fortunate to have her here.
Also here is our attorney, Lynn Reuter-Huber, also our ZBA director, Ian Haggerty, and our board
Administrator Lakeisha Dandy this hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the ZBA website
by participating in this you consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting
with remote participation whether in person or on zoom if you're called to testify please state
your name and spell it and then wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in each time you testify
please state your name to enter an appearance indicate your property
address on the zoom webinar speak with a staff member call the ZBA office by
close the business tomorrow call 215-686-2429 and please leave your name email and the address of
the property in question for remote attend participation raise your virtual hand so that
we call on you to testify when we call on you you must click the join as a uh a panelist button
Use your Q&A for questions about procedures,
not about the comments concerning the case.
If you are joining by phone,
press star nine to raise your hand
and star six to unmute.
In-person attendance.
If you're testifying, get close to the mic
so that all in attendance
and also the courts and opera can hear you.
No talking, eating or drinking during the hearing.
Aggressive behavior will not be tolerated.
in an emergency, please follow the staff instructions.
The main exit is the double doors at the rear, and to the left of that is the stairwell.
If we evacuate, please go to Love Park, where then we can call on you and make an account for you.
So let's look at our schedule for this afternoon.
so let's look at our schedule for this afternoon
number one get this next to me here
number one eight five seven five tarsdale avenue mi 2022 001088 that case has been withdrawn
Number two, MI 2025-004-380-4370-74 Main Street, that case is continued until 8-12-26 at 2 p.m.
And number four, MI 2026, 000810, 200 North 50 A Street.
Eric Carroll is the attorney.
Mr. Carroll, could you please come on?
Good afternoon, Chair.
this is jasmine and i will be your co-host for this afternoon session thank you eric carroll
has been allowed to speak mr carroll could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
good afternoon can you hear me i can okay uh eric carroll e-r-i-c-c-a-r-r-o-l-l
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
I do. Mr. Carroll, we have some missing exhibits on your case. We don't believe that the RCO had
proper notification. I do have, I had had some email correspondence with Mr. Haggerty in the
last couple of days regarding that issue. I saw that, yeah. Yeah, I do. I can present all the