i've been before this board a couple of times before with this uh use that we are speaking
about this afternoon. Again, it's called Quick Lube. We specifically received a refusal from
LNI because the proposed use that we are seeking today, which is personal vehicle repair and
maintenance, is expressly prohibited in the CMX 2.5 commercial zoning district. Again, Quick Lube,
as I started to say, we've been here before for, I think this will be our third location. The first
location was up at 2250 Cotman Avenue. The second one was over at Bluegrass and Welsh Road up there
in the northeast. What we are seeking this afternoon is to do a two-bay, 1,342-square-foot
take-five oil change facility. Again, if the board wants to hear it, take-five is unique from
anything else that we have in this area. Individuals will drive their car to the location.
They never leave the car. They stay in the car the entire time, and they are only provided a few services.
This one in particular will provide oil changes, windshield wiper replacements, engine air and cabin air filter replacement,
pool exchange, rotate tires, and they will do state inspections.
There are over 800 take-five oil change facilities across the United States,
And the average service time is about 11.2 minutes with a high volume of about 10 cars being serviced an hour.
With regards to this site in particular, as you can see from the screen, we're doing some substantial improvements to this property.
First off, we'll talk about traffic flow.
There's currently curb cuts right here where you kind of see this lighter green.
Also here, what we are doing is we are going to be closing those curb cuts off.
we are going to be doing, you know, we will be replacing the handicap accessible sidewalks just
so that they are freshened up, if you will, adding landscaping around the property. And so now the
only ingress and egress for the property will be along North 5th Street up here. Again, closing it
off, this has been done in consultation with the streets department. Right now, this intersection
at North Lehigh and 5th Street, excuse me, it's close to that intersection where that curb cut
is now so closing that off will allow uh cars to to enter in a little bit more of a safer location
it's more centralized with regards to hours of operation it will be open seven days a week 7
a.m to 8 p.m with regards to delivery supplies all deliveries minus the oil will be delivered
by essentially a ups uh truck with regards to oil delivery itself it's no different than your home
oil service a truck will pull up usually about once a week depending on volume if it needs to
go in it might be two times a week they'll pull into one of the bays uh and the truck will just
unload the oil and then they'll leave all the used oil which was something that was a question
uh with regards to the rco is stored and also removed uh out one
with regards to the RCO is stored and also removed out once a week.
The whole site is designed in a way that the oil collection system consists, you know, nothing spills out, if you will.
And I have someone from operations who can go into greater detail if the board so chooses.
Again, with regards to the support of the community, one thing that Quick Lube does is they look for employment opportunities within the community.
And I know that's something that everybody always says when they come to these.
This is something that this company really prides itself on.
In addition to that, they also work with, as they've been doing with the prior other RCOs that I've mentioned, to look at second chance opportunities.
Individuals who need a second chance, that's one big thing that they do with their hiring.
And they don't just keep them at entry level.
Instead, they really do an internal promotion program.
Some of the managers that are currently working at Quick Loop started out as entry level from a second chance program
and are now not only just managers of those individual stores, but also regional managers.
They also do charity.
They normally do two charities a year, one's for the local children's hospital where they're located,
and the other one is for Folds of Honor, which is an organization that benefits families of fallen service members.
In coordination or a conversation with the RCO, they requested two charities in particular.
So those charities, just for the board's knowledge, will be St. Christopher's Hospitals for Children,
as well as the Veterans Multiservice Center.
We did meet with the RCO back in, I guess that would have been March, excuse me.
The RCO meeting was attended by 22 residents.
The vote was 22 to nothing to support among the residents, and then 5 to 0 in support from the board itself.
I do have a full presentation packet with regards to the zoning notice and all that, but I don't think, you know, nothing's been flagged.
So I have no other presentation that I can have.
Why don't you have your testimony adopted?
it. Perfect. We'll start off with Shannon.
Why could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer and try to get close
and turn that off for us. Thank you.
Shannon Park. S-H-A-N-N-O-N
E-A-R-K. Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Shannon, you were present in the room when I gave
that testimony? Yes. Is everything accurate
to the best of your knowledge, information, belief?
Yes. And just for the record, so you can
state for the board what is your role here this afternoon i am the civil engineer and so you work
with you you're you're an employee of bowler yes and you were responsible for the designing of
these plans yes perfect um and you would adopt that testimony that i provided as your own i do
there any questions for the engineer questions from the board for the engineer i guess i have
a question about the number of parking spots the plan shows i think spaces for seven cars and i'm
wondering is that a breakdown between cars that are being serviced employees of the location and
patrons yeah um the as a letter mentioned that the you stay within your vehicle for the service
so um the parking is mainly intended for the employees mainly for the employees okay you'll
never leave your car there's you know the you they're not parking like they're not parking at
actually go into the retail. There's not even a retail. It's just a storage and a restroom for
the employees and then like a spot for them to, you know, have their lunch. Um, but you pull in
here, it's kind of like a drive-thru restaurant. You pull in, you don't leave your car, you get
your service and then you leave. Okay. Other questions?
Questions or comments from our attorney? No, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands at the sound chair planning commission amy blood with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the
existing commercial mixed use cmx 2.5 the zoning designation supports walkable community commercial
corridors and the property sets an important intersection for the el centro de oro commercial
corridor on north 5th street the planning commission recommends the board deny the
requested variance for vehicle repair and maintenance
mi 2024 007 499 433 to 43 wesley high avenue i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you
council thank you very much mr chair and members of the board sure mi 2024 007 535 1800 south 32nd
street brett feldman is the attorney hi council good afternoon
so council could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
try again yeah good
try again yeah good afternoon brett feldman 1835 market street philadelphia pennsylvania
19103 b-r-e-t-t feldman f-e-l-d-m-a-n right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client the relationship to the property
Yes, I represent Attain ABA Autism Therapy. They are the equitable owner of this property,
which was formerly the PHA headquarters. Yes. Do you waive the reading of the refusal and do
you agree with its accuracy? I do. Okay. Why don't you start your presentation? Great.
I'm going to share my screen here.
There's a recommendation and support from the Tasker Morris
Neighborhood Association, by the way.
You're coming up, right?
Okay, great.
Great. Let me get right to it here. Again, Brett Feldman, I represent the applicant to attain ABA
therapy. We've passed up exhibits 1 through 14, which I'd ask to be incorporated into the record.
Okay. Mr. Chairman, as you said, we do have a letter of support from the Tasker Morris
Neighborhood Association. That came after multiple meetings. We've worked closely with the community
to obtain that letter of support.
I'm joined by Fernando Vinagre,
who is the Director of Compliance for ABA Therapy.
This application might look similar.
Mr. Vinagre and myself were here about a month ago
for the location at 5440 Lansdowne Avenue,
which was a Rite Aid that Attain was purchasing
and converting into an ABA autism center.
This is now for the former PHA headquarters building, which would be really kind of their showpiece, flagship.
That's the one faces the expressway.
Correct. Let me just show you the picture, and everyone will recognize it there.
That's the letter of support.
Here is the building, right on 76.
That's Vare Avenue right in the front and 76.
There are the ingress and egress points, as you'll hear, are right on Vare.
We're not changing the building.
We're not changing the envelope.
We're not changing the ingress, ingress points.
We're not changing the 69 existing parking spaces that you see right there.
That's from the, I guess you would call it the back.
This is the picture of the front.
For many years, it was operated as a PHA headquarters.
It has now been empty for some number of years. If you've driven past, I drive past almost very frequently. There was a massive for sale sign that was on the back of this property that is weathered. It's been up for years and years, as I understand from PHA and its brokers.
There was not a tremendous interest in this property, but I think those in the community are very excited and appreciative to now have this type of facility, an autism center in that neighborhood, which is one of the, as Fernando, as you'll identify, is one of the main areas of need in the city for autism treatment.
along the spectrum disorder.
These are the pictures inside.
It is an office building.
That's kind of what you have on the multiple floors.
And one of the attractions of this is that
there was a variance issued for the office building.
And this use, which is both offices,
which is the existing use and also the group medical,
there is a lot of, you know,
there's work inside that has to be done,
But it's not the type of massive residential conversion that would cost, would be prohibitively expensive with all the new bathrooms and all the new infrastructure and life safety that you would see with the conversion.
And I think that was one of the main reasons why this wasn't developed.
So with that being said, I'm just going to, Fernando, you testified previously to the board, but I'm going to ask you again to go on the record.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Fernando Vinagre, F-E-R-N-A-N-D-O, last name V-I-N-A-G-R-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
And Mr. Vinagre, can you just provide your name and title and your area of responsibilities within ATTAIN?
And Mr. Vinagre, can you just provide your name and title and your area of responsibilities?
Yes, my name is Fernando Vinagre, and I serve as the Director of Compliance for ATTAIN ABA.
And can you provide the board with what is ATTAIN and what type of services does it provide?
Basically, it provides a variety of behavioral treatment services to the autism population and developmental and intellectual disabilities.
And you have locations throughout the country, but you also have locations in Philadelphia, correct?
That is correct.
And you have one existing location?
One existing location in Maniunk.
Okay. And we were here a month ago on the other proposed location that we're now moving ahead with.
So can you just provide a sense of what types of services we would provide at this type of center that we discuss with the community?
So basically, we specialize in Applied Behavior Analysis Services, which is the gold star evidence-based treatment for autism and intellectual disabilities.
So basically, what you would see at this center is a variety of assessments and evaluations that we would be conducting there,
which would be the first step in the process to kind of diagnosing what the various deficits are
for that individual. And then from there, the second phase of there would be that you would
see there is direct services. So once we have a full mapping of the assessment, via the assessment,
all the treatment needs, then we move into direct services. The children would come to the actual
center and would be undergoing direct services there as well. We also have ancillary services
that will be specializing there. So we'll be engaging in occupational therapy, speech and
language pathology, and physical therapy they'll be able to provide. Thank you, Mr. Vinagre. And
you see in front of you a kind of a day in the a typical type day um that um uh an individual
a youngster would would would experience at the center is this a good sense of what a day might
look like it is it is yeah um basically there's there's a series of a variety of classes that
we'll be um utilizing um children will be grouped into uh various groupings or classrooms based on
levels of need, levels of acuity, and treatment goals. So we'll be pairing a lot of the children
based on a lot of the treatment goals that they have. The day is basically broken up into two
halves, where you might have children that come during the morning time, basically 9 to 12,
another grouping that might come in the afternoon time from like 12 to 5, and then some of the
children that have larger needs would be there the full day. And I have some pictures in front
of you of what the types of classrooms and group therapy spaces look like. Is this a good and
accurate representation of what the type of classrooms that we'll have at the center?
I guess absolutely. These are some of the renderings that we're looking to design on the
inside. We call them classrooms, even though they're not academically based or won't have
teachers. We call them classrooms because of the learning focus that we have, and there will be
interventions and basically a lot of instructional play that is occurring that's all backed by the
treatment interventions that they're receiving. And this is one of the rooms? Yeah, so that's
an example of a vocational area that we would have. Occupational therapists would be utilizing
that area as well um for you know a variety of different interventions from gross to you know
um motor skill use and so forth and i know at one of the community meetings someone mentioned this
looks kind of like the police touch museum inside but there is a serious purpose to this correct
there is absolutely thank you okay um that's your presentation right that's as far as mr
of an algrace testimony um if there's questions that the board has questions on the board
no i i don't have a question i guess i just want to say i worked this was one of my projects when
we first did it at p michael i was just ready to say what a beautiful building by the way what a
wonderful building if if you live long enough they redo all your but i'm glad to see the adaptive
the reuse for this facility because I know it was a long time that PHA had been looking
to get somebody to come in and acquire that building once we sort of did the consolidation
of the apartments on Ridge Avenue, so it's great.
departments on ridge avenue so it's great i'll tell you that building always looked great when