Mr. Chairman, just to clarify, it would just be continued for the vote, correct?
yeah okay thank you well the vote and you know public testimony and also the planning commission
will then make a recommendation right so we're not going to hold public comment today i don't
think i'm going to hold public comment to do we see what the whole issue is right
after planning comes with where they think we need to be then i would do public comment okay
All right. Hillary, are we okay? Yes, Mr. Chair. Okay. Counsel Logman, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I'd like to continue the protestant's case with
an expert witness. It is Frank Tavani. He is a traffic engineer and the principal of FTA and
Associates. Could he please be sworn in? Frank Tavani, if you're in a virtual audience,
Please raise your virtual hand.
They have been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Mr. Tavani?
Yes, can you hear me?
Can now, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Certainly.
My name is Frank Tavani.
Last name is...
We're not hearing you, sir.
Mr. Tavani.
We did not hear your last name.
Mr. Tavani, we're not hearing you, sir.
Mr. Tavani, could you state your last name and spell it?
T-A-V-A-N-I
Swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Tavani
i'm not sure what the problem is i have you connected um directly to me i i don't know
what the problem is either but we're not hearing so could you do one more time do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel um excuse
me mr chair could we since mr savani is a witness can we promote him to a panelist please so that
that he can turn on his camera.
Thank you.
Hello, so I'm trying a different connection now.
Is this working?
There you go.
Yeah, that's much better, sir.
Good, good, good.
Good, good, good.
Can you move in this one?
Can you move him sworn?
Council Lachman, please proceed.
Council Lockman, please proceed.
Yes, Mr. Tovani, could you please, by whom are you employed?
I'm self-employed by F. Tovani and Associates Incorporated.
I've been in that capacity since October 2004.
What is your education?
I am a civil engineer.
I have a bachelor of science degree, graduated in 1993 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Do you hold licensures?
I do. I'm a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I have been since 1999. I also hold a PTOE certification, which is bestowed by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, or ITE.
And what is your experience in that capacity?
So basically, for the last 31 years, I've been practicing exclusively in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and parts of South Jersey and Delaware as a transportation professional.
Typically, I represent applicants. Sometimes I also do reviews on behalf of municipalities and townships.
I also do a lot of institutional work, such as representing Villanova University, Lower Marion School District, Eastern University and others.
Okay. I would like to offer Frank Tavani as an expert in expert traffic engineer, particularly parking and traffic operations engineering.
Ms. Burke.
We'll just object on lack of experience in Philadelphia with residential projects.
I have, even though I didn't mention them, my CV might not also call them out.
I have worked on small and large projects in the city of Philadelphia.
I've also had a hand at reviewing some of the casino applications over the last 20 years.
And what type of residential projects in Philadelphia?
Well, as you might imagine, they're mostly single-family homes.
Which would not have a parking component typically, correct?
Yeah, parking doesn't really discriminate between city boundaries.
There are recommendations as proffered by ITE for single-family homes versus multifamily homes.
And in my experience, both doing reviews and preparing studies, these are usually upheld equally regardless of the location.
Philadelphia parking is governed by the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
So it is a unique application in this instance.
I don't know if I would call it unique, but I understand that there are ordinances and zoning requirements, as there would be anywhere.
But in my experience, traffic studies often look at the most recently available empirical data, which is usually not found in ordinances.
Usually ordinances lag behind by decades.
Usually that information is found in such manuals as the IT parking generation manual, the IT trip generation manual, things of that ilk.
We can respond to the report, Mr. Chairman, but we'll just note our objection for the record.
Blagman, please proceed.
We're not looking at him as an expert witness, but he can give his ideas of what he thinks about what's happening there.
But he's not an expert witness for this case.
Are you familiar with the land development project at 7330 Ridge Avenue?
Yes, I've reviewed the applicant's exhibit materials that were submitted, I believe, last month. I think they're dated 30 October 2024. That included plans, and I also prepared a report dated 11 December 2024.
Okay. Could you please summarize the major points in your report?
i could and um at this point i actually uh just as a matter of convenience i've pulled up uh parts
of the exhibits um the applicants exhibits on my laptop as well as my report as well so
if it pleases the board perhaps i could screen share to make things as quick as possible do that
So do you see what's on my screen now?
We do not, sir.
See the green button at the bottom share screen?
Spare it with me.
I see it.
Coming up now.
Please proceed.
Okay, wonderful. So this is a zoomed in version of one of the pages from the applicant.
This is a zoomed-in version of one of the pages from the applicant's exhibit package, and
I'm just making some changes to my screen at the moment. I'm going to zoom out just to show that
this, I believe, was page 14 out of the 151-page PDF. This is a pretty illustrative view of the
proposed site location and you can see in particular in the lower right corner and the
upper right corner elements of a relatively recent single-family home development adjacent
to the site known as Roxborough Reserve. The homes in Roxborough Reserve appear to be substantially
comparable to what the applicant is now proposing. As the board's probably aware, the board had,
the applicant had previously proposed shoehorning 20 single-family homes or attached homes rather
and is now proposing a significant reduction in 10 detached homes that appear to be very similar to what's found in Roxborough Reserve.
One potential difference is at Roxborough Reserve, they have two car garages, and I'm zooming in a little bit now,
so you can see in particular one of the units you can see in the screen in the lower left side near the word east has a driveway apron with three cars parked on it,
And we don't know how many cars are parked in the garage of that particular unit.
But seeing that for context, this is adjacent to the site and knowing that we are pretty much in the northwestern extreme of the city of Philadelphia at this point, I would take the position that these homes have a bit more of a suburban nature in terms of their traffic and parking generation characteristics.
And what the applicant is proposing is a little different than what you see at Roxborough Reserve.
They include a single car garage and a single car apron.
So basically, they're proposing two parking spaces per unit.
They have significantly narrowed the proposed central driveway, the shared driveway, such that there is no potential at all for guest parking along that driveway.
So they are effectively proposing. I'm sorry, I misspoke earlier. It's not 10 units, it's 12 units.
So they're proposing 24 total parking spaces, all of which are found either in the building itself or in the apron in front of the building.
And as you can see in what we're looking at on our screen here, that's significantly less than what is found in Roxborough Reserve.
And according to the ITE Parking Generation Manual, ITE is the acronym for Institute of Transportation Engineers.
Homes of this type, four bedrooms, which is what's proposed by the applicant, has an 85th percentile parking supply of 1.25 parking spaces per bedroom.
So if you have four bedrooms, ITE suggests you have a parking supply of five parking spaces per unit.
So that will work out to be 60 parking spaces.
And in this case, we are only having 24.
So that is one of the main concerns of the project. Another concern, if you look in the lower left corner on the screen or even the lower right corner, you can see, again, using Roxborough Reserve as a proxy, they have not one but two cul-de-sac bulbs, which facilitate ease of circulation for things like trash trucks and Amazon delivery vehicles, moving vans, basically, you know, any long wheelbase vehicle.
Does it need to back out the entire length of the central shared driveway in that community?
They simply turn around in one of these provided bulb areas.
And it would be my contention that the applicant can relatively easily provide that same facility on this site simply by eliminating one or perhaps two units from the current site plan.
And that would alleviate a significant burden on the community.
The applicant's own testimony last month, as I understand it, is that trucks-
Did you hear that, sir? Did you hear that testimony?
I did not.
Okay. Well, I don't think you should testify to something you didn't hear.
All right. Well, going back to the applicant's exhibits, their traffic study gave no indication that trucks will be able to turn around on site.
And even a cursory review of their proposed driveway will make it pretty clear that it's going to be impossible for any vehicle longer than a passenger car to be able to turn around and head out to Ridge Avenue.
They will have to back out onto Ridge Avenue.
So what I had proposed in my report was a pretty simple change.
You can see here I superimposed the applicant site plan onto an aerial image
and simply replaced that with a mock-up showing how it would be different.
And simply replace that with a mock-up showing how it would be different if they made the central driveway slightly wider to accommodate some parking along the driveway in between units, which would benefit guests.
And if they provide a turnaround area at the bottom corner of the site, this would represent a substantially safer situation for not only those residents, but, you know, anyone traveling along Ridge Avenue, whether they're going to or from the site, or just happen to be driving in general.
And I think that's it.
Frank, have you had a chance to review the vehicle circulation plan by dynamic traffic dated 12-16-24?
Yes, that plan, I believe, showed a moving van or a delivery vehicle, a relatively small vehicle that would have to drive onto sidewalks in order to accommodate movements on site.
I don't have that available at present, but I did review it.
Okay. As far as your recollection, does it show a 19.7-foot van making a three-point turn on the proposed driveway and showing that it would have to go up on not one, but two sidewalks in order to accomplish the three-point turn?
Yes, that's my recollection.
Would, in your opinion, would there be circumstances when vehicles longer than 19.7 feet would have to enter the driveway for delivery? Things like larger delivery trucks, buyer trucks, things of that nature?
Oh, yes. Of course, as I mentioned during my direct, you know, even just trash trucks are significantly longer than that and would obviously not even be able to make a three point or more point turn.
They would basically have to back out onto Ridge Avenue.
In your opinion, is this properly planned for circulation, this land development?
Not as currently proposed.
Thank you.
At this point, I think it's been accepted. Mr. Tavani's report, dated December 11, 2024, has been received by the Zoning Board. I just want to make sure that it is moved into evidence.
Thank you. Council, Ms. Mer, do you have Krush?
I do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Tavani, can you describe some of your recent residential projects in Philadelphia? I know you mentioned a couple of single-family homes.
Have you done a PUD before?
I haven't done anything recently in the city of Philadelphia.
Okay, so that may reflect some of your comments.
Is it your experience that the parking ratio in Philadelphia is determined by what?
Generally by what the developer is able to provide.
What is the regulatory factor for determining requisite parking in Philadelphia?
I believe it's one space per unit.
And that's governed by the Philadelphia Zoning Code?
So in the RSD3 district, which this property is located, the applicable standard is one space per unit, correct?
The applicable municipal standard, as I mentioned, sometimes those standards are a bit outdated.
And it's my experience, both reviewing studies as well as offering them as my own, that the ITE Parking Generation Manual is something at least worth considering, as is the context, such as the neighboring community that we can see on the screen right now, which provides significantly more parking than what the applicant proposes.
And what's the current ratio proposed on this site?
Two per unit.
Two to one, correct.
And in your expert opinion, two to one is insufficient for a single family home.
In this context, in this location, I believe it will be, yes.
Yet the parking requirement in Philadelphia is one to one at this location.
And have you had a chance to review the zoning refusal for this project?
so in conducting your opinion and your report you didn't review the issues before the zoning
board in connection with the project objection i i think i think she could answer that ask that
question please i did not review those materials i wanted to rely on my own experience uh in
reviewing the application and determining whether or not there were any comments worth offering
So the reason I asked the question, and I appreciate you indulging the question, is that
So the reason I asked the question, and I appreciate you indulging the question, is that the zoning board is reviewing two instances.
Neither of them are parking or traffic related.
The zoning is compliant in terms of parking and traffic at this location, as determined by the Department of License and Inspections and the Department of Streets.
Is it your testimony that 12 single-family homes generates a need for 60 parking spaces?
I believe there's some evidence that one can see at the nearby Roxborough Reserve community that you very well may have four or five cars per household.
You know, 60 might be greater than what is necessary.
I certainly think that somewhere between two per unit and five per unit is probably a better outcome.
Have you worked on a city project that has provided five off-street parking spaces per unit?
You know, Counselor, after 31 years, I can't say that I can remember all the hundreds of
projects I've worked on, so I can't say yes or no to that question.
But off the top of your head, you can't think of a city project that's required five-to-one
or provided five-to-one?
That's correct.
Have you visited this location?
I have.
So you're aware that there is a large eight foot wide shoulder on Ridge Avenue directly in front of this property?
It's actually, I think, six and a half foot wide shoulder that narrows along the frontage and actually becomes a bike lane.
So our engineer also reviewed the site and measures that at an eight foot wide shoulder, just for your reference.
and it's not a bike lane it's a shared bike path past the property um once you get past the drive
um would you confirm that eight foot wide is large enough for parking yes okay and
lastly i just want to talk briefly about the proposal you have on screen
is it your testimony that this is a zoning compliant proposal no okay so just so we're