but there was it was sent to neighbors proof of the mailing um we have a letter of non-opposition
from council member o'neill and we are vice chair has a few questions good afternoon um have you
submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing we have with the exception
that the record was supplemented this morning with the copy of the fully executed lease
okay and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do okay thank you
you can proceed with your case okay thank you good afternoon um again i'm here on behalf of
jasbath llc with me is mr swapnil patel a representative of the tenant for this former
Big Lots space. This application is for a trampoline park, which falls under the umbrella
use of an event and assembly facility. It's proposed for the tenant space number 11, which
is the former Big Lots in the Philadelphia, I just want to get the name of the marketplace.
Yeah, the Philadelphia Marketplace Shopping Plaza, which is right across the street from
the Franklin Mills Mall. It's a very large 30,000 square.
It's a very large 30,000 square foot space. The brokers, when Big Lots announced it was filing for bankruptcy at this location and would be leaving this location, they've been marketing the space to both local, regional, and national tenants, and Urban Air came out as the as the most appropriate tenant for this large space that has long been sitting vacant.
uh the property is zoned uh auto commercial but the fart northeast overlay requires the
variance from this board uh we did meet with the rco back in march i made various attempts to get
the meeting summary from them but haven't been successful but um the council member's zoning
officer was there they submitted their non-opposition and i can attest as an officer
of the court that the it was a well-attended meeting and the vote was positive uh unanimous
in support of this project um it has plenty of shared parking with the rest of the tenants of the
market plaza space uh again it's this former big lots which was one of the anchor tenants of the
shopping plaza this is what uh you can all imagine a long vacant former big lots look
looks like high ceilings um but uh lots of lots of space for this new tenant to come in
this is a fit test of the proposed trampoline park um as you can imagine it's catered for
For younger children, there will be trampolines, rope course, laser tag, rock climbing wall, slides.
Swapnail can tell you a little bit more of the kind of uses that will be in there.
There's also event rooms that will be available to rent for children's birthday parties.
Further on, they'll be able to have extracurricular programming for STEAM activities.
Um, the community was overall supportive of having an indoor recreational space that the the children can go to and having a strong tenant to fill this long vacant space.
Uh, the hours of operation will not exceed, uh, an 8am start time and 11pm.
uh closing time and urban air park is a national franchise but swept neil and his group are local
business owners and will be kind of he's here and can answer any operational questions
um just some images of other urban air parks and what this facility may look like once built out
Of course, the build-out will take some time, but it will be a fun space for kids to enjoy.
With that, I'll ask that Sapnail will be sworn in.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Sapnail Patel.
Could you, in my favor, get a little closer and make sure it's on?
Is she agreeing late?
That's it.
Go ahead.
Sapnail Patel.
S-W-A-P-N-I-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Counsel.
so now can you just state for the record your relationship to the tent to the tenant um the
dazbav llcu yeah i'm actually one of the owners of of that group sure and you saw my presentation
in its entirety and uh was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes it was and do you
adopt it as your own testimony yes is is there anything else that you'd like to add for the board
no nothing if any questions questions from the board it's the first trampoline park we've done
if you're interested now so please questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um i just wanted to ask if um council would have any objection to her proviso specifying
space number 11. that's fine okay the refusal doesn't uh specify any particular space so yes
thank you i do have a question is there plans to serve food on site and does that require
additional approvals that aren't covered there is plans to serve food on site but the events
space assembly use allows for the kitchen uh question to comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair planning commission
planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a
amy boy with the planning commission
change in zoning at this location from the current ca1 commercial auto oriented to ca2
the proposed use would be allowed under the recommended zoning and is compatible with nearby
land uses the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested variance for
Assembling Entertainment.
MI-2025-007-239-12131 to 41 Knights Road, I vote yes with Proviso.
Limiting use to space number 11.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hi Owen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay, number three, MI 2025-007-280, 1638 Porter Street.
Michael Mattione is the attorney.
There's a letter, an email of support from GEAR RCO.
Very, very little longer letter, very nice letter.
So, Mr. Mattione, could you, and also we have 80 form letters of support
signed by neighbor, 17 from the immediate block.
So, Mr. Mattione, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer?
Michael Mattione, M-A-T-T-I-O-N-I.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client,
the relationship to the property?
Sunday's on 17th, and Leanne Sadloff is the principal.
She's here.
All right.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
yes all right thank you you can see your screen and begin prior case is still up
so say the prior case is still up on the screen yes we still see the the air park yeah we uh
we got to get the trampolines down right there we go let's go on all right
here you go oh there we go that's better thank you again um michael maddione and i have uh my
client leanne sabloff here uh the owner of sundays on 17th they're a tenant in the first
floor space at the building at 17th and porter street and you know we submitted all of our
materials in advance and i just wanted to to key in on a few things um chitter into the lease this
property has been vacant for many many years but it had approvals back in 19 hold on
1966 for a dry cleaner it was a dry cleaner for a long time before that was approved with
an apartment above in 2018 there was also a variance granted by this board for an administrative
office on the first floor with two residential units above and there are two residential
units. Again, this is at the corner of 17th and Porter. There's photographs showing the
site. Again, additional shots of the site. As you can see, it is a long-standing commercial
use interior. It's just clear space, ready to be fitted out for a business. It's clearly
not a residential use and given that it has two residential units above it could not be a single
family use throughout the entire building you already have two approved residential uses
like you said mr chair we had a support email from gear
gerard estates area residents who are the coordinating rco and 80 um
letters of support now virtually all of them were within about a one and a half block radius
and my client also lives about a block and a half from the site she hopes to have an ice
cream parlor here just an old-fashioned ice cream parlor you can see from the site plan
typical counter service space some seating there's going to be indoor trash storage and
some outdoor trash storage as well if necessary her days and hours of operation would be seven
days a week all year long may to september would be noon to 10 p.m october to april 2 to 10 p.m
except on days when the same monica school has early dismissal and she would open up
30 minutes prior to the early dismissal to grab the students on their way home from school
Again, she lives in the neighborhood. She wants to run a family-oriented store with the typical treats sold in ice cream parlors. As I said, it's got a very long history, probably predating the zoning code as commercial use on the first floor, many, many years as a dry cleaner.
again she lives in the neighborhood she wants to run a family-oriented store
um nobody can ever remember it not being used as a dry cleaner when it was used again we believe
that we meet the requirements to be entitled to a variance I mean this is a non-conforming structure
with non-conforming uses um they're the minimum variance I mean this is a small commercial space
it's oriented as a commercial space meant to be a commercial space it's got to be the minimum
variance it's the only thing you can really use the space for is some kind of a commercial use
and given its zoning no matter what commercial use you want to make of it you need to come in
and get a variance it'll it'll benefit the public i mean the gear support email um keyed in on this
by eliminating a vacant property and blight from the area it'll add eyes and ears to the area it
won't injure the properties surrounding it'll help them out because there'll be people here
ear long at night making sure that there's people looking around see what's going on in the community
again it will it gets rid of what was the dry cleaner and actually dry cleaning shop there
which is an environmental problem or could be one because of the way that they operated
so it gets rid of that there will be no negative impact on the community
and it just it's supported by you know again 80 neighbors and they just want to see this happen
they want to see leanne come in and do this with that i'd like to call on leanne sure could you
please state your name and spell for the stenographer
thank you leanne savloff l-e-i-g-h-a-n-n-e-s-a-v-l-o-f-f right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel thank you mr chair and did
you hear my presentation and are my statements thrown correct yes and do you adopt them as your
testimony yes i have nothing further from the savloff no signage with this no signage okay
thank you or uh questions from the board um yeah do you do you anticipate any outside activities
um as you operate like maybe a window or take out those chairs we would love to have outside seating
that's a separate ordinance that's required okay so because we're outside of the
what like what was your plan to keep like this that corner clean just in general
my children um would attend ccd at saint monica's and for five years i wouldn't even allow them to
kind of walk on that property because it just sat um every time it was snow there was a ton of ice
there was a ton of you know it was just never removed since i took over the um since i started
my lease in september i've made sure that the property has been cleaned at all times
when it was the blizzard i actually helped a lot of the neighbors also because i acquired a snow
plow i grew up in south philly we just help each other i just want to add that and add that back
and also for new neighbors to realize like why they really want to live in south philly um i
just want to see people outside again because what i realized is the more you sit outside the more
you get to know one another and the more you get to know one another the stronger your community is
And I just really want to instill that in my 12 and 16-year-old going forward so that they understand.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And the saver it is, too.
Are you making the ice cream there, or are you buying it and just serving?
I'm just buying it.
I'm acquiring it, though, from a homemade, well-established two companies, one with new age flavors and one for old school to help everyone's needs.
Okay. And then what are you doing about deliveries? Like how often do you anticipate deliveries and how is that going to be handled?
Deliveries will be designated on Friday mornings. We're going to try to do it after the school rush hour so that we don't impact anyone coming and going or holding anyone up. Our trash day is Tuesday, so we will also not impact, you know, trash collection. But we do want to do it when no one is around so that we don't impact anyone's parking needs or anything like that.
Okay. And then you said it would be seven days a week, but how many seats are you planning to have? I mean, I see a little.
There's around 28, 26 seats inside. 26 to 28 seats.
Okay. Thank you.
I have a question about storage and prep space. Do you have the basement as well?
Are the freezers going to be in the basement or?
Are the freezers going to be in the basement or?
Okay. Yeah. I was like, I don't.
I was like, I don't see them on the plan.
I think that's the.
Are you doing any, like, are you making anything on site?
Like, I know some ice cream shops do fresh waffle bowls, brownies, any.
That would be the extent of it.
Just waffle cones and brownie bites.
I'm trying to figure out what would be the best for the situation.
how to source yeah okay i don't think i have so the serious question what's the new age flavors
we're sitting up there what's the new age flavors come on jelly ice cream butter and oh
we're going back to the old-fashioned one
school that i'm going to work with for my traditional and spot okay all right all right
Does our, does our attorney have any requests for flavors or agenda sessions?
No comment.
And I also don't have any questions.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, I have a hand up from Riona Wakefield.
I will promote them again.
and good afternoon again everyone hi could you uh you've already been sworn just for the record
state your name Brianna Wakefield proceeds and I'm here to testify that council president
Johnson is in support of this property all right good thank you very much for calling we appreciate
it thank you planning commission amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan