James Snell, my vote is no to reconsideration and rehearing.
Number three, MI 2022-005-393-2546 Page Street. This will be heard during the 2 p.m. hearing a little later when Mr. Shahid gets on the phone.
number four mi 2022 003 851 7200 marston street i vote yes with proviso use limited
to the retail sale of baked goods thomas holloman my vote is yes with provisos
James Snell. My vote is yes, with provisos.
Number five, MI 2022-005-509-2552-64 North 3rd Street. I vote yes, with proviso. Per amended
refusal dated 2-17-23. Address and refusal for streets, trees added, attached. Maximum 64 units,
revised plans, two pages, stamped by ZBA on February 22, 2023. Use registration required
Use registration required prior to occupancy for vacant commercial spaces.
prior to occupancy for vacant commercial spaces.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with provisos.
Jane Snell, my vote is yes with provisos.
Number six, MI 2022-003-166-4847-49 Haverford Avenue.
This vote, the vote on this matter, will now be held on Wednesday, March 1st at 2 p.m.
Number seven, MI 2022, 004-886-617 East Durham Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you. We're moving to our regular list.
Number two, MI 2022-005-916, 1400 South Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Ronald Patterson is the attorney, letter of non-opposition from Penn Sports Civic Association, letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
So, Mr. Patterson, we'll be rejoining as a panelist.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Ronald Patterson here.
Mr. Patterson, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Ronald Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N, at Claire Harrison Law Firm, K-L-E-H-R, 1835 Marketplace.
street Philadelphia. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth? I do. Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property? Sure. The property
owner is Tower Investment. Principal owner is Bart Bladstein. Okay. Thomas, could you follow up
with follow-up questions? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, Council. Do you agree to waive
reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes I do. Did you email all the exhibits
and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing? Did you meet with the RCO and
do you have a letter? Yes to all of the above. Thank you please share your screen. Great thank you.
can you see my screen we do yes yes okay great thank you yeah great thank you i will begin
uh so this application regards 1400 south columbus boulevard it's uh an unoccupied former
entertainment center we're probably all familiar with this on columbus boulevard um it's uh it's
So on Columbus, South Columbus Boulevard, Reed Street, Dickinson Street, and to the rear is what we'll call I-95 and Water Street, which is important to the project because this is where our parking has and always has been.
um uh mr blasting first developed this uh entertainment complex in 1993 and it has a
united artists regal theater probably the best producing one in the in the east coast um a couple
other uh uh spaces here uh had changed over time but generally you know all entertainment related
uses. There was a laser tag, a Sega Gameworks. Later in this area was Warm Daddy's Jazz Bar
restaurant, we would call it. It was sold to Cedar Realty Trust in 2000, and they operated it.
The theater closed probably maybe eight years ago. Cedar kind of mothballed the property
a few years back and had plans to renovate it, but then unfortunately Cedar became a casualty
of COVID, wound up selling all of its assets, its Philadelphia assets. This asset was from this
property all the way to a couple other centers, all the way to Washington Avenue, one on 23rd
and Oregon, and Aaron may go, I just say that by way of background, because then Mr. Blastine
repurchased this. He was the best one to do this and renovate it back in May of 2002 with the
desire to restore it back to life. When it was originally approved in 1993, it had an array of
assembly and entertainment uses that I believe may have been permitted at the time, but later and now
the property located in CMX3 Commercial Zoning District. The assembly and entertainment use
The assembly and entertainment use that we're proposing, which you'll hear about, requires a special exception.
that we're proposing, which you'll hear about, requires us.
So pursuant to, and I hate to cite code, but 14-303, Section 10, these uses under their zoning permits have lapsed or expired since they had not been operating in the past three years.
So hence, we're here again to get, I'll call it a reapproval for the assembly and entertainment that's proposed at this location.
And let me find the site plan here.
Well, it's more of a floor plan, but Louis Theater, the other two spaces, what our proposal is, is to combine these three spaces.
that create one large space of 46,325 square feet.
The theater that occupied this area
had 17 little theater rooms
which need to be all interiorly demolished and renovated.
So it requires major renovation.
At the proposal, we do have entertainment,
assembly and entertainment, arcade type use
with food uses and the like.
We believe that the proposed use will have no adverse impacts and certainly will not be any greater than what was previously there, based upon the use in the history.
As to the density, it will be less people there than would be you would expect at a movie theater and less traffic impacts because as movie theaters release, there is a slug flow of people that kind of crowd the area.
In terms of traffic and parking, as I mentioned briefly earlier, the property has enjoyed a longstanding agreement with PennDOT to park beneath the I-95 overhead, which is operated by PennDOT through an organization called ILMAC.
This is where all the parking is provided by way of lease, and it's also open to the public when nothing is operating at the facility.
We did meet, as you mentioned, with PennSport, and we also have a letter from Councilman Scuola.
So with that said, I'd like to introduce Bart Blatstein to go over some testimony.
Mr. Blatstein, could you stay your name and spell for the court reporter?
Mr. Blatstein, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
It may be by phone.
i've allowed him to speak
all right mr hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter yeah
bart bladstein b-a-r-t-b-l-a-t-s-t-e-i-n do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth yes sir proceed counsel thank you uh hi bart um so can you see me can you
see my video off oh your video is off how do i i don't work this thing um maybe there's a camera
tab you could push and turn your camera on um actually mr patterson assist tanya he's only
available for sound if you need his video we can do that okay okay i'm better looking at first
All right. All right. So, Bart, you've heard my statement, my testimony. Would you agree it is true and accurate?
Yes, Ron. And would you adopt it as if you were your own?
Yes, Ron. Okay. I have a few questions. So it's true you built this way back, 1993?
Yes. A much younger and thinner part built that.
Yes, but finer. And the use is proposed. If you could briefly just describe to the board
and kind of, you know, inflect how that they're less impactful
than what was previously there?
Whereas this is a use that people flow in and out,
whereas the theater, which had nine screens on the first,
11 screens on the first floor,
it could have held a couple thousand people,
up to a couple thousand people at a time.
And what are you proposing now?
An entertainment venue on the first floor. I can't disclose the tenant, but it's an entertainment tenant that's well known.
tenant but it's a entertainment tenant that's well known and that entertainment will have
um as i mentioned arcade games food and other entertainment correct okay that's all i have
for mr bladstein if the board isn't questions from the board no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
I just had a quick question for Mr. Patterson.
In the deed that was submitted in the packet,
it said the owner was Riverview 3 LLC.
Is that part of Tower Investments?
That's correct.
Yes, that's the holding company.
Correct.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No, any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
good afternoon chair bergman david facto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission
do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes sir i do proceed thank you mr chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change in the commercial mixed use zoning at this location the applicant has shown that the
proposed assembly and entertainment will not cause detrimental impacts beyond what would normally be
expected so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the special exception
mi 2022-005-916-1400 south christopher columbus boulevard i vote yes
thomas holloman my vote is yes
james snell my vote is yes thank you counsel thank you
okay let's continue uh number five mi 2022 005 915 90 red lion road
um recommendation of support from the greater busselton civic league with provisos
attorney
maybe John Pack
Mr. Chair
Ms. Udovich has her hand raised again
do I allow her to speak
she's been allowed to speak sir
okay could you state your name please
and scroll to the court reporter
Alice Udovich
U-D-O-V-I-C-H
for councilman brian o'neill you've already been sworn um you have a comment relative to this case
i do um as you know the uh the case has been um denied due to the councilman's overlay
the councilman opposes this project um i realized that the community supported it with provisos but
we often find that those provisos are not enforced after the fact. And, and the councilman,
you know, has been trying to prohibit this type of activity in industrial areas.
All right. Well, what we're going to do is we're going to hear the case first. And then,
okay. Alice, you can come, why don't you hang on? You can come back on when I call for comments
from the, I certainly will. Yes. Mr. John Pack, P-A-K.
or joseph acaro mr pack has been allowed to speak thank you oh yes good afternoon
my name is swamp john pack last name p-a-k right and i'm here to affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes i do could you identify your client your relationship to the
property. Oh, yes. I'm here with my client, Mr. Cockerberry Kubin-Zay, and he's the property
owner at 90 Red Ryan Road. Okay. Hi, Chair. I'm sorry. This is Tanya. May I respectfully request
him to spell his first name? I can't hear you. Okay. I can spell my first name. Go ahead.
It's U as an umbrella, A as an apple, M as a merry.
But I also go by John, J-O-H-N.
Thank you.
Mr. Howman, do you have a few questions for this gentleman, please?
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required?
five days five days in advance to this hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter
did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter we do have the letter from the rco i
we do have
believe it's been shared with everybody uh in this room and i believe all the um uh exhibits
have been shared by my predecessor mr attorney joe vicaro thank you please proceed and share
your screen and he's coming back in now as a panelist uh i thank you
Is Mr. Pat coming back in?
Am I in?
yes and you can um start your video and then you can share your screen sir
i can start my video sorry i'm sort of new to this so um you can bear with me
that's fine mr pack you're fine now now now now share your screen okay the green button at the
bottom green button at the bottom oh right here
you guys hear what you see this um you have to open up what you're
what you're going to present now right uh oh your application for appeal right right
can you open that document i didn't open it it's not open here yeah we're still seeing your uh
file so if you can just stop sharing and then share again once your file is open
So you can click the green button.
and then it will ask you what documents you would like to share and just click on the document.
Yep. Okay, now this is the photograph of the premises.
Okay, so as you are aware, the standard concerns and application for personal motor vehicle sales
and rental and auto tags and associated repairs and maintenance. Now the repair and maintenance
will be limited to the cars that they sell and they sell and they rent. There will be no other
vehicles being maintained or repaired at the site. This property is owned by one industrial,
but because of the far north-east overlay, the proposed use of the personal sale rental is
prohibited. Now, my client, Mr. Kubinense, did attend a meeting with the RCO,
and the RCO will provide a letter of support with DeFi provisos, which we all, my clients
know, issues will ring to.
Now, I'm showing you some pictures here.
You see some pictures here with the voting notice that was posted 21 days prior to the
voting hearing.
uh what he plans on doing at the site is he plans on operating a used car uh sales store
and like i said previously he'll be doing repairs and maintenance of those vehicles only
um there's sufficient parking spaces at the location already
um this is just a picture of the inside this is where the office is going to be
I think there's 21 parking spaces at this location already, and they already have a
commercial dumpster contract, so there's not going to be any trash issue.
So for those reasons, we ask you, Chair, and the Board to approve the variance for this
So, those reasons we asked you are-
application.
Mr. Pack, what else is in the complex?
In the complex?