I really don't have much more to add.
i really don't have much more to add okay then then we have nothing further mr chair
Okay, then we have nothing further, Mr. Chair.
okay thank you questions from the board
no chair
lebaron
no questions mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
Chair, we have Amy Zuccarino. She's been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Ms. Zuccarino, please unmute yourself.
Yes, hi. I just want to offer my support for you.
Hold on, Amy. Hold on one minute. Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Sure. My name is Amy Zuccarino, Z-U-C-C-A-R-I-N-O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Proceed.
I just want to offer support for the Catholic workers.
I think what they do for the community is fantastic.
They offer people that are less privileged than most people in that community.
And I just think that they're doing a wonderful job.
Thank you for taking the time to cause and we'll take your words on their advisement.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have someone with the last name, H-U-Y-N-H.
Caller, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon.
My name is Katie Nguyen, H-U-Y-N-H is my last name, first name, K-A-T-I-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
I have been volunteering at the Catholic Worker Free Clinic since 2002, and I can testify that this is a clinic that is saving lives.
As you know, we are in an opioid epidemic, and we witness more than 1,200 people a year dying in our city of opioid overdose or related to opioids.
And this is a clinic that is on the ground, really engaging folks in care.
When you hear the words free clinic, you might think of a business or an organization, but there's no transactions done at this place.
There's no money taken. There's no IDs taken.
consider this a drop-in center, consider this a safe place where people that don't feel safe
in our healthcare system can find a connection and really start to make a move towards health
and whatever that might mean for them. I'm a physician assistant. I also have worked in
several federally qualified health centers in Philadelphia and just testified that this is
different. This is a place that is unique and that is offering services to people on the margins in
many different ways. Thank you very much for calling in. We appreciate it. Is there anyone
else in the virtual audience? Chair, we have the Reverend Kristen Ostendorf. They have been
muted and about the screen. Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court
personographer. Sure. My name is the Reverend Kristen Ostendorf. First name is spelled K-R-I-R-T-E-N.
Last name is Ostendorf. It's O-S-P-E-N-D-O-R-F. Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also
I'm speaking in support of the Catholic Worker Clinic. I am a partner of the clinics. I am a
deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, which includes the city of Philadelphia. And as
has already been testified to, this clinic is saving lives. It's part of a multi-organizational
approach to working with some of the systemic issues in the city of Philadelphia. In my case,
I work with the mendicant outreach project called Clare Project, and we walk the streets to try to
identify people who might benefit from the clinic services and also offer creature comforts and
pastoral care. And I would say that the ongoing work of the Catholic Worker Clinic, which has
been there for decades, allows for real health care and compassion to continue in part of a city
that desperately needs it. I also would like to make the point that these are systemic issues
that we are working against, and we're not going to be able to zone our way out of them.
Keeping the clinic open will continue to save lives while the city can deal with some of
the issues of opioid addiction and intense poverty that we see in that area.
Thank you for allowing me to speak.
Thank you for allowing me to speak.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
We will take your words under advisement.
We will take your words under advice.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have someone under the name Tracy's iPhone.
Caller, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Mr. Chair, if I might, very, very briefly, I know that there are a lot of people here
to offer words of encouragement and support to the clinic.
In respect of the board's time, if you're here and just want to offer a quick statement
to support. I think the board understands. I don't want to take the board's time with a lot
of repetitive support. I think we have a strong picture where the community is with this.
Trying to be respectful of your time, Mr. Chair. So is there anyone who has any comments that are
different than what we've heard? How's that sound? Chair, I still have the caller under Tracy's iPhone.
Bring them on. Caller, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Caller, under Tracy's iPhone, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
All right.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else?
Chair, we have Naomi Wildflower.
They've been unmuted and allowed to speak.
could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer hi my name is naomi wildflower
n-a-o-m-i last name w-i-l-d-f-l-o-w-e-r um do you hold it hold it hold it do you swear for him
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you in favor of this project i am
okay um we've had a lot of testimony about it we appreciate your call and we will take note that
you're in favor of it thank you very much is there anyone else here i see no other hands at
this time thank you very much planning commission please excuse me chair i'm sorry okay the hand
went back down i'm sorry planning commission good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rm1 multifamily zoning
at this location. However, the property has a long history of being used as a medical office
that expanded into a full medical clinic to serve the community at need. Accordingly,
we recommend the requested variance be granted. Thank you. MI 2023-001-771-1813 East Haggard
Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you,
Mr. Klein, you have your votes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair,
members of the board. Number five, MI 2022-004-231-4501 Woodhaven Road. Augusta O'Neill
is the attorney. Letter of non-opposition from Councilman O'Neill. Letter of support from
Millbrook Civic Association. Here, Ms. O'Neill is coming back in as a painless now.
Good afternoon. Hi, Ms. O'Neill. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the
court stenographer? Sure. Augusta O'Neill. It's spelled A-U-G-U-S-T-A. The last name is O-apostrophe
N-E-I-L-L. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth? I do. Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property? Sure. My client is
4501 Whitty Haven Holdings, LLC. They are the owner of the property. And our vice chair has just
a few questions for you. Sure. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to read the reading of
refusal and speculate towards accuracy? I do. I've emailed them all the required documents and
exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing.
The only document that was missing is the tax clearance certificate. My client did have an
issue with the city and so an agreement was signed by him today to clear up that issue and
the city solicitor's office has just got to countersign it. So because our project architect
and engineer, and my client are all available today. I was hoping to be able to go forward
because this was last minute. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in touch with the solicitor's office
to get that all executed to provide to your board solicitor. Understood. So we'll hear the case out
and we may have to hold it until we receive the cert, but we can move forward with the case.
Thank you so much. I appreciate the accommodation. No problem. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, members of the board.
I'm here this afternoon representing 4501 Woodhaven Holdings LLC.
I'm here this afternoon representing 4501 Woodhaven Holdings, LLC.
They are the owners of the property at 4501 Woodhaven Road.
This is an application to construct a new four-story Marriott-branded hotel in the parking lot of the Philadelphia Mills Shopping Center, which is located in Northeast Philadelphia.
Just to orient the board to the site, I provided an aerial overview of the property at page 47 of your exhibit package.
The hotel is going to be located in this parking lot right off of Liberty Bell and Franklin Mills Boulevard.
It's just south of the Burger King that's next to the shopping center.
Pictures of the existing property are located beginning at page 49 of your exhibit package.
Sorry.
Again, as you can see, this is where the hotel is going to be located. It's currently just empty
parking spaces in a large shopping center. The hotel is going to be approximately 84,000 square
feet with over 1500 parking spaces and 100 guest rooms. The parking space number of 1500 might sound
large um that actually considers all the parking spaces that are in the entire shopping center
the hotel itself is going to have 138 parking spaces including four ada spaces and one ada van
space just for the board's reference i've included some pictures of renderings of the to be built
Hotel. This is just a view of the hotel looking north. If you're on Liberty Bell Boulevard
looking east, this is another image of the rendering of the hotel. This property is zoned
CA1. The refusals that were issued appear at page three of my exhibit package. There were two
refusals that were issued. One was for the use, and the other is because the height is about 14
feet over what is permitted in this location. I would submit to the board that this use is
appropriate for this shopping center location. This is a fairly underutilized shopping center
already. The uses that are permitted in the CA1 district would primarily be retail uses like a
CVS or Home Depot or PetSmart. There's already a CVS in the shopping center, and the property
hasn't otherwise attracted a lot of retail tenants. So we feel that this is an appropriate
use of the site, as does the community that's affected by our application. We would also submit
to you that there's going to be much less traffic generated here than would otherwise be permitted by
one of the permitted CA1 uses. Due to the size of this project, because the building is going to be
over 84,000 square feet, we went through the civic design review process. We met with the
Planning Commission on August 1st. We were able to get through CDR in just one meeting and a copy
of our completion letter starts at page 10. I'm sorry. 10 of your exhibit package. We also met
with the affected RCO for the property, the Millbrook Civic Association, and they are in
support of the use so long as it is a Marriott branded hotel. Their acknowledgement of support
does appear at page 7 of your exhibit package. Councilman Brian O'Neill is likewise in support
of the project. And again, his stipulation, just like the community, was that he wanted to see it
remain a Marriott branded hotel. His letter of support appears at page 5 of my exhibit package.
With me this afternoon is our project engineer, Tyler Dolgos, and Mark Musacchio, our project
architect. Should the board have any design questions for either of them? But with that
being said, I would ask that my client, Ravi Chawla, identify himself to be called forward.
And I know he was traveling, so if there's any issue pulling him forward,
I'd be happy to adopt his testimony as an officer of the court.
I'm sorry.
Do you see his hand raised?
There are no hands up at this time, Chair.
Counsel, we will take your officer of the court and we'll accept your testimony.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Tom.
No, Chair.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
Sorry, I just have two quick questions for Mr. O'Neill.
First, you mentioned that there was a refusal for the visitor accommodation view, but I don't see that on the copy of the refusal that I received.
Do you believe that's a missed refusal?
Oh, you know what? I think that Chelly actually did submit a corrected version.
I had this one saved when I pulled together my exhibit package, so I will update with a corrected.
This one's saved when I pulled together my exhibit package, so I will update with a corrected version, so I apologize for that.
Okay. Thank you. And then you mentioned there was a tax agreement. Was that related to real estate taxes?
I believe it was related to real estate, and there might have also been BIRT taxes, but I'd be happy to send you a copy of the stipulation as long as my client has no issue with it once this is over.
Sure, sure. So, yeah, we will need the correct refusal because we would need to add that as a proviso if this is granted, as well as the tax information in order to vote it.
We're probably not going to vote. We're not going to vote on this today, right, Hillary?
No, because we'll need the tax information, but we also need to make sure that we have the correct refusal on the record.
Sure. Thank you. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Alice Udovich. They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Hey, good afternoon, Alice. Could you spell your name, please, for the court stenographer?
Sure. Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the board. Alice Udovich, U-D-O-V-I-C-H, on behalf of Councilman Brian O'Neill.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
just wanted to uh repeat what miss o'neill said that the councilman does support this however
it is a conditional support based on the tenant being a marriott and if not a marriott that they
come before the community again thank you all right thank you um anyone else in the virtual
audience chair i see the other hands at this time planning commission good afternoon chair
peter bernard for the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the ca1
commercial auto related zoning at this location this proposal has completed the civic design
review process earlier this year we feel a hotel at this location will serve the nearby interstate
in the franklin mills area and is compatible with surrounding uses accordingly the planning
commission recommends the board grant the variance thank you um council we will we will be back once
we receive the other issues and we'll vote this as soon as we can. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate
your time. Thank you again for hearing it. Okay. And Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. The record is
closed except for receiving the corrected refusal and the tax information. Thank you. Thank you
again. Number six, MI-2023-001-939-6031 Tarsdale Avenue. Stephen Pollack is the attorney.