Correct.
And when are peak periods?
Specifically for this study, the peak hour was...
7.45 a.m. to 8.45 a.m. and 4.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Rush hour, right? Rush hour in the morning and rush hour in the evening, correct?
Correct.
Okay. So as a traffic engineer, do you believe that there will be a confluence,
a high degree of likelihood of confluence between the peak period traffic generated by the business community in the area that will be using 39th Street?
generated by the business community in the area that will be using 39th street
and or this garage and the peak periods affiliated with the boston market
and you're yes it would be reasonable to assume they're coincide well when would you think the
when do you think the the uh wouldn't wouldn't the peak periods of a restaurant be later in
the evening or on weekends or i assume no one's going to boston market in the morning
correct correct so they would they coincide where they would not coincide
there could be some uh traffic of from people driving home from work
or but in general it would be on the later end of the peak rush hour and probably after
after that rush hour of commuters okay so let me ask you another question do parking garages
generate trips no they do not what's what generates trips the actual land use that's
building that's being constructed is it true that this garage is not only anticipated to serve
the proposed building but also other buildings that exist in the area currently and in the future
do you believe the traffic generated by this project in any way will impact
i know you haven't studied the intersection but will impact
the boston market in any material way
no okay and stated it differently as part of this project
i mean i mean this is too more to the point as part of this project
this project will have to continue to work with the streets department to ensure that there is
not a negative impact on the area to the south while going through the building permit process
correct yes that's correct okay mr shaheed did i answer the uh mr davidson answer your question
yes mr maglore and thank you mr davidson yeah thank you sorry to go through that long thing
a long uh recitation we wanted to give you a solid answer okay is there anyone else has
questions for the traffic engineer no mr chairman
mr mcclure how about your next witness uh mr chairman i think you'll be glad to hear that
i have no further witnesses well thank you very much any other questions from the board
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair thank you planning commission good afternoon chair bergman
david facto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes sir i do proceed thank you sir uh good
afternoon chair and members of the board uh this proposal completed its civic design review in
november of 2022 the committee noted that the proposed number of parking spaces seems to be
excessive given the type of building it is proposed to serve the civic design review committee
is advisory and issues recommendations that are not an expression of the city planning commission's
recommendation or opinions regarding zoning variances, special exceptions, or other discretionary
approvals. The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location to commercial
mixed use five, even with the proposed zoning and above ground parking garage would require a special
exception. The applicant has shown that the proposed above ground parking garage will have
no more of an impact than such a structure would be expected to have. And so the city planning
commission recommends the board grant the special exception thank you mi 2022-004-831-3816
market street i vote yes
per amended refusal
dated 1-11-23.
I vote yes
per amended refusal
dated 1-11-23.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
Excuse me.
Sorry.
Something's happening with feedback.
I believe the refusal is dated
1-11-23.
That was my error.
Sorry about that.
I vote yes
per amended refusal
dated 1-11-23.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with Proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with Proviso, good luck with that project.
We're in love with that project.
Ishmael Shahid.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, Mr. McClure.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And just one last request, if Exhibit 4B, which is the amended plan, be stamped as well.
Yes, it will be.
Is that Hillary?
We're all fine with that?
I did not receive a proviso form or amended plans to review.
so that I would need to review
and the board would need to re-vote this
if you need a plan stamped.
If I may just correct,
we did not do the proviso way.
What we did was we've had the amended refusal
so it is based upon the plan that's in front of you.
Okay, then you do not need the plan stamped
since the refusal reflects the current plans.
Correct.
That is fine.
I'm just making sure we're on the same page.
Yep, you're good.
You're good.
Thank you, Celestia Emerson.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number three.
Thank you, Mr. McGlore.
Thank you.
004-812-140 West Roosevelt Boulevard.
Rachel Pritzker, Brandon Saverin are the attorneys.
Letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Letter from nearby church stating they would enter into an agreement with applicant for parking.
And letter of non-opposition from Masperanza.
Chair, Brandon Saverin is coming back.
New Year, temporary special exception.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Brandon.
Please state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Brandon Saverin, that's B-R-A-N-D-O-N.
S as in Sam, A as in Victor, R-A-N as in Nancy.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes. Give me one moment. I'm so sorry. The name of the entity is...
Milan Investments?
It is. Yes, that is right. Thank you. Milan Investments, LLC. And that's my client. They're the owner of the property.
All right. And Mr. Shahid has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his acquiesce?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed all the required documents to proceed with this case five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share the screen.
Okay, thank you.
good afternoon members of the board so before you is an application for a special exception
not for a variance as you heard from Mr. Fecto in the last case essentially the sort of summary
of the standard for granting a special exception is whether the proposed use would have negative
impacts that are greater than one would expect from the proposed use. And our position is no,
that the impacts of this use are in line with what one would expect from it. Just to give you
an idea of the property we're talking about, it's on the south side of West Roosevelt Boulevard
at the three-way intersection with Rockland and Masher Streets. This is a building that was a
Korean church until it was sold a few years ago and abandoned by the congregation. This is a
Google Street View view of it from Roosevelt Boulevard. It has sort of like a driveway loop
off of the local lanes of the boulevard. It's next to a auto body and car maintenance shop
that's on the corner. This is a view of the building from the rear. There again is that
auto maintenance shop, and there's the rear of the former church building. On the other side of
the street here, this is Rockland Street, and the rear is a church, which is going to be relevant to
this case. I'll talk about that in a minute, but just wanted to show you that's directly across
the rear from us. So here is our notice of referral. Again, this is not a variance case,
says there's no refusals. The referral is for assembly and entertainment use with the sub
type of use being nightclub and private club. Now that sounds a little ominous. I want to be
crystal clear about why we applied under that category and what the property owner actually
wants to do with the property. Just to show you a section of the Philadelphia code here,
what this says is that if you as a property owner want permission to
What this says is that if you as a property owner want permission to regularly have 50 or more people attend an event in your facility or have live music, you must apply under the name nightclub and private club, even if it's not a late night facility, which our facility will not be.
And the code is really crystal clear about that in that it calls out banquet halls, which is a decent summary of what we're going to be as a type of use that must apply under that name.
So that's what we did.
I'll just briefly show you, as the chairman mentioned, we have non-opposition from both the coordinating RCO and Councilwoman Lozada.
The coordinating RCO is Esperanza Housing and Development and Economic Development, pardon me.
And Esperanza has proposed that the board grant a special exception that expires approximately three years after issuance.
We had a couple meetings with them and have agreed to that request if you're inclined to grant it as such.
um so um angie milan and her company milan investments is the owner of the property
but the property is going to be leased to the dominican american chamber of commerce
and as the prospective tenant the chamber has offered a letter to the board which is
an exhibit my exhibit packet and is on the screen here that explains what they plan to do with the
property. So they're going to have sort of like satellite offices inside, and they're going to
hold events that require greater in-person visitation than their current office can
accommodate. So they've described those events here as professional networking, business networking,
workshops, conferences, member events. They've made promises to the RCO that if they do become
the tenant that they will have a security system. And in the event, which would not be more than I
would think a couple times a month, but in the event that they would have particularly large
events or events that run past 10 p.m., they would have human security guards on both sides
of the premises, which is spoken to here. Back to that church that I showed you on the rear of
the property. So we, in coordination with the RCO, wanted to secure a lease for off-site parking
because this property, while it has a driveway drop-off loop, it does not have parking. And we
thought it was important to have parking. So that church that I showed you, Tabor Lutheran Church,
has agreed in concept, if we get this special exception, to sign a lease for their parking lot.
And I'll go back to Google and just show you where that parking lot is.
So again, here's the rear of our building.
Here is the church.
And then around the corner on Masher Street, right here, is their parking lot.
So this would be available to guests.
I also wanted to show you the tentative floor plans.
We're not asking you to stamp these plans as this is a change of use application.
But would we get your approval for the use? We would pursue a building permit in accordance with these floor plans.
And essentially, the space is already pretty well configured for, you know, events given that the church used it for events, the Korean church.
But what we have here is this is sort of the upper floor, which is level with the Roosevelt Boulevard drop off.
There's a main auditorium space that actually has a stage, and we would, I believe, maintain that.
There's a warming kitchen. This is not a cooking kitchen in the rear.
That's why we're not applying for restaurant use.
And then there's a sort of side room that can be used either as like a lobby for folks entering events off of the main entrance or as a second gathering space.
This also has some bathrooms.
And then there's a lower level that is level with the Rockland Street side.
This is a smaller space that can be used as like a coat room or storage or something like that, or as another small gathering space.
It has additional bathrooms. So I think there's there's an excess of a half dozen toilets here.
And that is my presentation. I'd like to bring on Angie Milan in a moment. I will just say to conclude, to speak to the special exception standards, that as I showed you, most of the surroundings of the property are non-residential.
That, as I showed you, most of the surroundings of the property are non-residential.
We're not proposing an expansion of the building.
We're going to reuse it in its current format, no additions.
And given that we have the drop-off loop and the parking arranged with the church, we don't
feel that this application would have negative effects on the surroundings, whether by traffic,
by blocking light or air, any of the standards that the code says an applicant must avoid,
we think we are avoiding all of those negative effects. So with that, I'd like to ask if
Angie Milan could raise her hand and be promoted.
Did we see her hand?
Yes, I see her.
Hi, could you speak your name?