agreed have emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to
Agreed.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed?
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes we have thank you council
please proceed and share your screen uh may i ask that the board promote crystal bordoni
callie who's also an attorney here at the firm to share her screen for the exhibit and other
materials sure and you're going to do the testimony correct yes okay thank you thank you
yes i'm sorry um that person would need to raise their hand okay they have been promoted to panelists
hi good afternoon it's crystal bordoni kelly here you're just you're just going to put the
screens up am i correct correct that's correct thank you why don't you start thank you
all right mr poindexter thank you thank you crystal all right as stated i'm fredger poindexter
behalf of Saul Ewing and Tony Ford as applicant representing the Delaware River Waterfront
Corporation. And just a bit about the client, it's a quasi-governmental corporation organized
by the City of Philadelphia for the benefit of its citizens as stewards of the Central
Delaware River Waterfront. I am joined today by the President of the Delaware River Waterfront
Corporation, Joe Forkin, and I would ask that he also be promoted to speak later in this testimony
as well as Debbie Ferraro of Pannoni Associates, who was the prime engineer on the project.
And I ask that she be promoted as well to speak later on this testimony.
Before you on the screen are the materials that we presented to the zoning board last week.
And just for a brief overview, I'll run through the binder so that we have an understanding of what's represented here.
And I'd also like to ask that the full slate of materials be entered into the record for this hearing.
yes sir thank you and as you'll see we provided an overview of the site in terms of the client's
control of the site of the tax clearance certificate and information related to the
project and photographs of the property as it is now as required by the zoning code further we have
the zoning background and context which provided the original application materials that were
available to us, the notice of referral, as referred to earlier, our appeal application,
the temporary zoning use permit that we have for the site, and letters to and from the RCO regarding
the special exception, including the letter of non-opposition from CDAC. Further, we have the
project plans and drawings, which include the original site plan elevations provided to the
Department of License and Inspections, as well as the landscape plans and elevations provided to
L&I during the zoning permit application. And lastly, we have both the special exception
criteria information covered by the traffic signal design report conducted by Pannoni and
Associates in conjunction with PennDOT, as well as our list of witnesses today for the testimony,
which include, as I stated, Joe Forkin and Debbie Ferraro. And we also included a presentation to
walk through the changes that we are undertaking at the site which crystal will share and will explain
all right and just before we have mr joe fork and speak on the chain on the project i'd like to just
introduce that we are here to discuss the special exception for cmx4 lots for changes to surface
accessory parking areas and mr joe fork and if he's available to speak now can provide a brief
overview of the larger project that this uh surface lot change is uh under undertaking
joe are you available i i believe i am can everyone hear me yeah mr fork and state your
name and spell for the court stenographer uh it's joe fork and last name f-o-r-k-i-n
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, board.
Good afternoon for having me.
My name is Joe Fork, and I'm the president of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation.
As Fred was saying earlier for you today, I just want to provide some context before
Fred and Debbie get into the specifics and technicalities of the special exception we're
asking for.
So what we're asking is part of this, what we call large cap and civic space.
What we're asking is part of this, what we call a large cap and civic space project, 12 acres on the waterfront, a nearly $500 million project to reconnect the central Delaware to the core of the city of Philadelphia.
What you see before you is a site plan of what that park and space will look like when it's completed.
it. It runs basically from Walnut Street to Chestnut Street and from Front Street down to
the river, impacting the parcels at Market Street that you'll hear about later in the parking there
and the underlying CMX4 zoning. And then the other parcel, I don't know if we have an image of that,
but it's the extension of the South Street Bridge from where it currently lands on the west side of
Columbus Boulevard. We're going to draw that over to the east side of Columbus Boulevard to land
right in front of the Chart House site, and that bridge landing will disrupt or reconfigure some
of the parking that's associated with the Chart House restaurant and the Lombard Street parking
lot right now. So that's the context to provide here. It's all part of this Big Penn's Landing
project, and because of the boundaries of the construction and the improvements and amenities
to be constructed here, it impacts some of the parking that is currently on the waterfront.
Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Crystal, could you go to slide 7?
Thank you. And as Joe touched on, the project involves changes to the surface parking lots
at the Chart House restaurant near the South Street Pedestrian Bridge to create space for
the landing of that bridge there and changes near the River Rink surface lot as well. And
And you can see that on this map here, those areas are highlighted.
Next slide, Crystal.
So as you can see, the current conditions at the Chart House parking lot are 103 regular
parking spaces with no ADA spaces and very minimal landscaping.
And with the changes planned through the special exception, next slide, you'll see that there
is now the landing of the South Street Pedestrian Bridge with additional landscaping as well
as a reduction in parking spaces to 46 regular spaces and three ADA spaces. So a net gain
or net loss, sorry, of 54 spaces, but a gain of three ADA spaces here in the chart house parking
lot. Next slide. And the next area in question is the river rink area where there are currently
230 striped spaces and six ADA spaces near the river rink. And there are approximately 60
the un-striped spaces just north of that, adjacent to Columbus Boulevard.
And with the changes that we are undertaking there, the parking lot adjacent to Columbus
Boulevard will result in 176 regular striped spaces.
And the river rink, as you can see, has been modified and moved to the more northern side
of the pier.
And the lot there will have 87 regular spaces and six ADA spaces.
So in total, between the two lots, we're looking at a reduction in parking of 81 spaces, a gain of 388 spaces in the tri-house parking lot, and no loss of 88 spaces in the River Rink parking lot.
And we believe specifically with the change and the reduction of parking is wholly consistent with the criteria under the special exception criteria, also consistent with the city's comprehensive plan and DRWC's master plan for the waterfront to reduce surface parking lot areas on the waterfront and create more public recreational space.
And to speak more to the special exception criteria, I'd like to ask that Debbie Ferraro join as a panelist if she's available to speak.
Debbie Ferraro, please raise your virtual hand.
They have been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes. Hi. Can you all hear me?
I just want to check the audio. It's Debbie Ferraro. Official name is Deborah, D-E-B-R-A-F-E-R-R-A-R-O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Ms. Ferraro, I'd like to ask a few questions regarding the special exception criteria, and you are free to respond once prompted.
So in your professional opinion, as an engineer responsible for the planning and execution of this project, will the changes contemplated under this special exception, one, overcrowd the land, endanger public health or safety, or burden the water, sewer, or other public facilities in the neighborhood?
or burden the water sewer or other public facilities in the neighborhood?
The changes to the surface loss we do not anticipate would overcrowd the land,
endanger public health or safety, or impact water sewer or other public facilities in the area.
Thank you and next would you expect these changes to impair or injure the use of or restrict the
supply of light and air to adjacent properties to this subject property?
The changes to the surface loss would not impact light and air to adjacent properties.
Thank you. And lastly, with respect to impacts on congestion in the streets or transportation systems,
would you expect these changes to cause any issues with respect to those factors?
And when providing your answer, please provide insight into the expansive traffic study that was conducted by Pannoni and PENDOC, exploring the details of the changes.
The changes to the surface lots result in a decrease in parking spaces, which is associated with actually a reduction in congestion.
But for the record, we did submit a traffic impact study, which is conservative in the sense that it includes an assessment of traffic conditions with full build out of the Penn's landing site.
And it was prepared for the Penn's landing project. And it includes a 20 year design period, which, again, is more conservative than required by code.
but it's what we used as the design period for the project and includes an anticipated background
traffic growth on Columbus. And again, those were based on DVRPC's projections from their traffic
travel demand model, but it also includes full build out of the site for removing spaces for
the CAP project, potential 800 space parking garage at Market Street and a potential 400
parking spaces within Marina Basin. And, you know, the results, you know, of the traffic
modeling show good service levels and operating conditions at the intersections along Columbus
and throughout the study area. And I guess I just want to say that that report was submitted
several iterations of the report to the streets department and, you know, as part of final
design, preliminary and final design of the CAP project. So that, you know, that study has been
coordinated with the streets department who's also uh you know reviewed all the design materials
for that cap project so just to give you a little background on what we submitted but again um for
this proposal it's a reduction in parking spaces which is associated with reduction in traffic
volumes and congestion thank you debbie okay uh mr chair that concludes our testimony for today
okay questions on the board
questions or comments from our attorney
just briefly Mr. Poindexter the refusal notes that this is a temporary relocation
of the rink. Could you explain that? It's unusual to see for things to come before us that are
temporary at the outset. Right. And I'll answer that in brief, and I'll ask Mr. Forkin to address
it in depth afterward. But yes, as you'll see entered into the record, it's as part of our
exhibits. It's a temporary use permit provided by the Department of License and Inspections.
So the river rink is being moved or has been moved to the other side of this area to facilitate both the changes to the parking and the anticipated construction of the CAP and the CAP Park project.
So temporary zoning relief was granted by L&I to facilitate the changes so that construction and changes will remain on schedule.
And if there's any further insight to provide to that, Joe, please, please do fill me in.
Sure. Can I can everyone still hear me? Yes. Go ahead, Joe. Yeah. So thanks for the question. It's a wonderful question. So ultimately, the rink will be located on top of the new cap that's going to be constructed as part of the Penn's Landing project.
But we didn't want to take that amenity away from the community in the interim period during construction. So it is temporarily relocated, as Fred said, to the northern portion of the Market Street lot and site.
ultimately this site a seven acre site adjacent to the cap project will be a private development
site those plans are not yet yet yet complete or done or under construction in any way so
at some point in the future that will turn into a private development site but
in the interim the community benefit of the rink and the winter fest and summer fest sites
in the interim um the community benefit of the rink and the winterfest and summerfest
sites will remain on that site mr poindexter why don't you go back to the original
slide you had that showed the cap show the wrinkle in the cap
thank you i think the first one you showed the whole project i think the rings were in the cap
yep right the ring's sitting on the cap almost right am i right yeah so if you look at it mr
chairman there there's a pavilion building that straddles the cap area and just to the north of
that will be a festival site in the summer for festivals and then the winter rink in the winter
time will be located on that site thank you so just just to clarify so this application is
to extend that prior temporary permit because it looked like the the current temporary permit you
have to the current permit you have to temporarily relocate the rink was only through the end of this
year this application is to approve the reduction in surface parking so okay okay all right so they
didn't need because it says it mentions the uh the rink piece already so that's where it was
confusing. Thank you. Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands. Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon. David Fecta with the City Planning
Commission. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
commercial mixed-use zoning at this location. The appellant has shown that the proposed
accessory parking lot and parking area will have no detrimental impacts to the neighborhood
beyond what might be expected the city planning commission recommends that the
board grant a special exception for an accessory parking lot and accessory parking thank you
that's one question what's what's the time frame
i'm i'm sorry uh for the for the overall project and the phases
Joe, would you like to expand on that?
Joe, has been allowed to speak.
Yeah, thank you so much.
I think we're looking at about another four years of complete construction, hopefully a little under that.
But for the project to be built in totality, that's about the range of time.
Thank you.
Thank you, Joe.
okay okay so mi 2024 002 375 1 south christopher columbus boulevard i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes
tennetta graham my vote is yes hi erwin my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes
thank you counsel thank you okay is there anyone in the uh
virtual audience from the 330 list whose case has not been called
i see no hands thank you everyone this is a record-breaking time if anybody's interested
i think so have a good night everyone have a great night everybody
Good night all
Good night