which is consistent with many of the other uses in that area. So I think we're relatively
consistent with the RCO letter here. So with that, I'm going to stop. I'd ask that, I don't know if
there's any questions, but I do want to just briefly turn it over to Alexander Ortiz, the
construction manager, and have him promoted as a panelist for this project, if I may.
Okay. Alex, could you have any cop there in the virtual world?
I am here. Mr. Ortiz, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, yes, my name is Alexander, first name, Ortiz, last name, A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R-O-R-T-I-Z.
Where or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Oh, sorry, are you able to turn on your camera?
Let's see.
I don't see a button for it.
Is that uncontrolled locally on your end?
I'm sorry.
We'll have to promote him to a panelist.
I've already done so.
Thanks.
It's easier for me to see when I'm asking questions.
Thank you.
I just had to rejoin.
Thanks for your patience.
Hang on one sec.
Sorry to put the hassle here.
There you go.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
Can you give your title briefly?
My title is Area Construction Manager.
And I understand you oversee the construction process for New McDonald's locations, not
just in Philadelphia, but New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, D.C., and Northern Virginia, correct?
That's correct.
But you're actually a friend here.
You're calling in from Philadelphia area.
Can you just give the board, you know this site real well.
You grew up near the site.
Can you just briefly talk about your background in this immediate area and your understanding
of the site?
Yeah, so I drive by the site regularly. I'm from Philadelphia, was from North Philadelphia, went to school in Philly, went to Drexel for engineering. And I also worked at the Sunoco Refinery in South Philly. So I've been in Philly pretty much my whole life. Now I live just outside of the city in the Willow Grove, Abington area. And so we drive through the Broad Street and Old York Road route all the time.
And so I'm really excited to partner with the community on this location and have a
sense of pride because, again, it's the old stomping ground, I'll say.
So we're ready to work.
Got it.
I don't want to repeat everything as far as what this new location will look like.
But just briefly, I know safety and security was an issue.
I know landscaping was an issue.
Can you just briefly explain, you know, the McDonald's brought kind of their A-game as far as the site, as far as landscaping, design, architecture, technology to this?
Because as I understand, this is one of your first actual new location, not a rebuild, but new location in the city of Philadelphia in some time.
That's correct.
So this is an important project for McDonald's.
I'm sorry.
Yes, that's correct.
It's been a few years, but we're excited to bring in a new build here.
You know, McDonald's is right now bringing out our new prototype building. It's got the latest and greatest finishes in terms of exterior finishes that are high quality that will last, that will continue to perform there.
You have alpalic metal finishes, you have party board finishes, elements that hold up to the element, pieces that hold up to the elements.
And so from a clean perspective, they're easy to maintain, they're easy to manage, and we'll be able to maintain a beautiful building here for years to come.
With regard to landscaping, we want to partner with the community to beautify it as well.
So as you saw on the plan that Brett presented earlier, we are going all in with landscaping.
Our operators actually are evaluated by McDonald's corporate with spot checks.
So the corporation comes out to the location, does a spot check for cleanliness, for operations, for landscaping, checks for potholes.
They check, make sure all the lights are working and the operators are actually judged and given an evaluation based on how they do.
And so there's a lot of pride being taken these days in the operators and trying to score as high as possible on those evaluations because they give them the opportunity to to take on more restaurants and help them grow.
And this location, this location, if approved, developed, would be actually given to.
And this location, this location, if approved, developed, would be actually given to the Philadelphia operator who just scored presumably high on, you know, who operates locations, who has scored high on those metrics, correct?
Exactly.
Lately, what McDonald's approach has been is they're going to reward the successful and excellent operators, the ones who have a high customer service rating, the ones who have a high cleanliness rating, safety rating.
all of those items are evaluated in our spot checks.
And in turning to safety and security,
just, and this was, you know,
this is something we had a lot of conversation
with the community as far as security cameras,
lighting, so that there aren't areas of the site
that can't be seen by the cameras.
Just real quick on that topic.
Yes, so each location has dozens of cameras
inside and outside of the building.
And then covering the entire lot, all entrances, the trash corral or dumpster enclosure will also have cameras and LED lighting.
And the purpose, obviously, is just to let everyone know, the community know that, hey, this is a safe place.
But it also does help to mitigate some of the risks that come with, you know, with business, you know, in the city.
So the cameras help a lot. We've got dozens of those.
And then we also have LED lighting that is around the entire lot.
The good thing about LED lighting, it lasts a long time.
It stays bright for a long time.
And then it also has directional lighting.
So I know that what we'll be doing here, the directional lighting, we'll be shooting straight down on our lot.
And so it'll be very clean, clear, and bright, presenting, I think, a big improvement versus what you have today.
That was one of the requests from the community.
So I don't want to, again, beat this too, but the drive-thru lanes, which is really the reason why we're here right now, there is no drive-thru lanes.
The last couple iterations of restaurants have failed here.
As I understand it, having the two drive-thru lanes is absolutely critical to making sure that this location is viable, is successful, is longstanding.
but also that the operation of the drive-thru and the queuing is efficient, is safe, and that
there's no impacts on 66th Avenue, Broad Street, Old York Road. Is that correct? Yes, yes. The
drive-thru is critical for, obviously it's critical to our business, but it's also a key element for
keeping the drive-thru efficient, bringing cars in, having the ability to stack cars. I mean,
they're not going to be packed all day long. There's just specific times of the day when a lot
of folks want to come in for breakfast or a lot of folks want to come in for lunch. And we want
to be prepared to manage all those cars when they do come in. Having the second drive-through lane
allows for just an additional number of cars that can be in line. And this way, it prevents any
issues of the cars forming a long line, frustrating customers, blocking traffic. We don't want any of
that we want to get folks in and out as efficiently and as quickly as possible right so that's uh the
reason for requesting the second drive as far as the location these drive lanes even before i got
involved you were working with bowler engineering and the city on the design that we see here today
iteration after iteration after iteration ultimately this was the only viable option with
the two lanes because of this because of the existing restaurant because of the easement here
Can you just briefly explain, you know, kind of the geometry based on your experience, helping to design and construct what we had to go in this direction?
Brett, I think you already described that. I mean, if he can tell us something different than what you said, fine.
But, you know, you sort of like lay it out, then you ask him to lay the same thing out. So if you would.
Got it. Alexander, is there anything more as far as beyond what I offered on this topic?
I would just say that because of the easement, because of the layout of the site, it is a difficult site to fit everything in.
But I believe that we've maximized and done the best we can with what's available.
Yeah. And similarly, with the need for the pre-browse and the need for the on the on the freestanding sign, the animated.
Similarly, this is all designed to make sure that this operates as well as possible and that there's no negative impacts.
Correct. Correct. The pre-browse boards are meant to help be more make the drive through more efficient.
simple as that. Great. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to stop right there with Alexandra. I don't know
if there's any further questions. If not, I just wanted to- But could you tell me where the sign
would go on this diagram? Yeah, sure. Thank you. Yeah, it's right over here at the corner.
The corner here. Let me just pull up the site plan. I'm sorry.
The corner here. Let me just pull up the site plan. I'm sorry.
Right here. If you can see that right at the corner. There is a freestanding sign there.
That's there. I think it's almost the same size. It's just we couldn't reuse that sign. It's old
and tired, but it would go right there.
And again, it's fully code compliant
other than that element on the sign.
Mr. Chairman, if there's no further questions,
I just wanted to call our project engineer
just to adopt my testimony, Justin Klee.
He's the one that's been designed for a year.
Justin, can you just, Justin Klee,
I'd ask that you be promoted.
Thank you, by the way. Thank you, Mr. Ortiz.
Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
I've been allowed to speak.
Hi, sir. Could you state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Justin Klee, J-U-S-T-I-N-K-L-E-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Receive counsel.
Justin, you are the project engineer on this project for McDonald's on behalf of Bowler Engineering, correct?
That is correct, yes.
And you are a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?
And you heard my testimony as far as the design, as far as the need for the drive-thru, as far as the need for the signs and the window and the freestanding sign?
Yes. And your testimony fits what I would say as well.
Okay. And you adopt it as your own?
I do. Yes.
Great. Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to ask Justin to go through this as well. He was the person that came up with this design, worked with the streets department and city agencies to make this possible.
Okay. All right. Questions from the board.
Is this going to be one of those double, is that what I'm seeing? The double drive-through with the sign in the middle?
yes miss gaston there's it's it's it's two lanes that merge into one gotcha um which is
you know let me just shrink this down here sorry yeah so it's it's it's two lanes that become one
so ultimately it's one but you order you order from the order would be in that middle sort of
section there yeah you order right here and right here there's yeah there's two menu boards right
You can order from either side.
And then you go into the one lane.
And then you go into the one that's very common.
Gotcha.
So I guess my issue is, well, my question about the security, you're adding all this
trees and shrubbery and what have you, and that also increases the, well, you said there'll
be enough lighting that this won't be a problem in terms of uh there being shadows or places where
people could um i guess uh i'm not sure what i should say here uh hide or whatever or spoke
around and that kind of thing yeah a lot of these trees and i mean i'm not the tree expert but a lot
these trees are you know you've got the you know the bottom of it and then they they canopy out
so um you know they're designed to be low you know the bushes are are low you know there's not
really places that people hide uh but we did we did want to make this as attractive as possible
right so i'm not seeing like there's any like fencing or anything it's just the
trees or to act as this buffer yeah yes yes yeah yeah um but it's this is really a gateway location
i mean it's it's it's a major intersection um and it was really important for planning and for
mcdonald's um to you know to try to make this something that you would they would be proud of
and you would see whether it be in philadelphia or any of our suburban new locations all right
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands raised.
Explain any, Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The property is indicated for commercial mixed use on the city plan.
The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical conditions of the site that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the site.
physical conditions of the site that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the signage
requirements and the related drive lane standards of the code. Therefore, we recommend the request
of variance not be granted. So I'm going to vote these separately, two of them. So MI 2024-004-387-1401-66
6th Avenue. I vote yes.
Michael Johns,
my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed,
my vote is yes.
And then I'm going to, is Tanetta here?
Did she vote?
Maybe we lost her. Okay, so I'm going to move
to number 10.
MI 2024,
24-004-449-1401-66th Avenue, I vote yes with proviso. Hours of operation closed by 10 p.m.