to move forward with that, which was a tenant who was ready to go forward, they stopped and
they looked for a better, somebody who might be a better fit for the building in light of the
nearby residential homes and condominiums. So they did that. And William Figg, the founder of
the company, has been involved in this process along the way. He's been talking to the neighbors
and making sure that they understand what's coming here and that they're comfortable with it.
and that they're comfortable with it. Mr. Figg also appeared with me at the South
Mr. Figg also appeared with me.
Kensington Community Partners RCO meeting and you can see we do have a letter of support.
There was the vote for near neighbors was seven in favor, one opposed. The only opposition or
criticism that we heard was related to a legal dry vial that they intend on using
because it had not been enforced for some period of time
and people parked in front of it.
But aside from that concern
that Parallel Productions does intend to use
the legal drive aisle,
there was no opposition
and we heard a lot of support for this type of business.
We do have, in lieu of a tax certificate,
we do have a balance showing
that there's a zero uh tax balance on the property taxes uh here for the uh the property and with
that um i would just say it uh to just i'll bring up my screen in just one moment i could show you
a little bit about um parallel productions though i'm not i've actually only closed that down but
in any event they're um they're an established company uh and um we'd like your support but
with that uh i think that is the basics of my presentation uh if uh chair or the board or
anybody have your uh is your client here to adopt your testimony uh yes actually um mr on behalf of
parallel productions mr fig could you raise your virtual hand hello sir could you state your name
and spell please for the court reporter sure it's william fig w-i-l-l-i-a-n f-i-g-g right do you swear
or affirm tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel hi mr fig how
are you doing today great thank you how are you i'm doing well thanks uh did you hear the uh the
statements the factual statements that i made on the record yes uh were they accurate yes and and
would you adopt them as your testimony yes thank you all right questions from the board
no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands here planning commission thank you chair bergman david fecto with the city
planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single
family zoning at this location. This building has a documented history of use as a warehouse
dating to its construction. Given that, we believe that the applicant has a clear hardship,
and given the nature of artist studios and storage, we would not anticipate the impacts
of this use to impair the use of adjacent properties. The City Planning Commission
recommends that the board grant the use variances for artists and studio, business and professional
offices and storage. Thank you. MI 2023-000-124-1330-32 North 5th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
LeBaron Leonard Palmer, my vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you.
Number six, MI-2022-007-113-2301 East Butler Street.
Ronald Patterson is the attorney.
Letter of support from Harrogate Civic Association
and letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Mr. Patterson, can you raise your hand, please?
Mr. Patterson, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, I can. Good afternoon. Ronald Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N,
Claire Harrison Law Firm, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you identify your client in relationship to the property?
Sure. The owner is BDP Realty 2LP. My client is Chick-fil-A.
One of our board members, Mr. Holloman, has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to wait for reading of the ritual and stipulate to a mercy?
Yes, I do, Mr. Holloman.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Do you have a letter?
Yes, all of you, Bob.
Yes, all of you, Bob. I don't have a copy of the Harrogate letter, but I understand they issued one.
I don't have a copy of the Harrogate letter, but I understand the issue.
Thank you. Please proceed and shoot your screen.
Thank you.
Okay. Can you view my screen?
We can.
All right. Thanks.
So, yeah, this application regards 2301 East Butler Street. It's also known as 3800 Aramingo. It's at the Long Aramingo Avenue. It's the Aramingo Shopping Center.
It's populated by a Lowe's, a Walmart, Five Below, Sonic, other smaller stores, and a Chick-fil-A quick service restaurant, which is located here where the little ID is.
And here's a closer picture.
It's a general sense of the area where the property is located.
This viewpoint is important as we'll go through.
So Chick-fil-A has been here since 2007.
When approved with a drive-through, it met the then current design criteria of the pre-2012 zoning code.
Although it is a part of and functions as a shopping center with other lots that comprise the shopping center and under a unity of use, it does retain its own lot lines.
Let's see here.
All right, I'm going to delete this here.
So this is the current configuration of the Chick-fil-A restaurant and the drive-through.
This is where the ordering menu board here is here.
So this application is to redesign within the lot line parameters here of designating to create a second adjacent drive-through lane.
Can you see this new plan? Yes. Okay.
So what we're proposing to do is redesign and try to retrofit, as are other similar Chick-fil-A new stores, as the case may be, and other quick service restaurants, to provide a second parallel stacking lane that then funnels into this one lane for ordering and pickup through the drive-through window.
The property is located in a CA2, a shopping center zoning district. We filed the zoning permit application, and we received three refusals that regard design issues.
I'll find it here in a minute.
First one is the lanes need to be separated by a raised concrete medium, a concrete curb or landscape area.
The second refusal, the drive-through stacking lane proposes 9 feet and not required 10 feet.
And the stacking lane setbacks from lot lines, one is 16 and not 20.
And I'll take them in reverse order if you wouldn't mind.
So, the setback, as I mentioned, we're supposed to have at least 20 feet. Here is where the refusal is for this rear, I'll call it rear setback. Although the pertinent setbacks here where the actual stacking lanes are is 31 feet at least, 31, 7 inches on this line to this line.
So the fact that this is 16, this is still an existing condition, I think is irrelevant as a zoning refusal. It's not a stacking lane. The second refusal is a stacking lane width of 10 feet, and we're providing nine each.
And it's related to the last one that the stacking lanes are not separated here by some type of physical barrier.
And as you'll hear, we chose to not put the physical barrier because that would allow at least a safe area here between the cars.
This hasn't, if we were to put the extra foot, this drive aisle here, which is 15, would be reduced to 14, which as a tradeoff, we thought that would not be safe.
I would mention that the configuration was reviewed and approved by a streets department.
that the configuration was reviewed and approved by a streets department.
So this lane separation is unrestricted, as I mentioned.
All in all, the design works.
The hardship exists due to the current configuration, the past approval, the current conditions, albeit they are dimensional variances,
yet we believe they will create no adverse impacts, as evidenced by the streets department sign off.
We did meet with the Harrogate Community Association on April 6th, and we have a letter of support, as you have a letter of support, as you mentioned.
With that said, I would like to promote Eric Glock, G-L-O-C-K.
Mr. Glock has been allowed to speak.
Okay, you can hear me?
Yes, please state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
It's Eric Glocki. That's E-R-I-C, Glocki, G-L-O-C-K-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Eric, what is your occupation?
I am a design engineer for Collier's Engineering and Design, and I've been working with Chick-fil-A for the past four years.
Okay, so you have prepared or you are familiar with the site plans that I've shown that were submitted as part of this application?
That is correct, sir.
And this is the area here we're speaking about, right here where the drive-through lanes would be?
You see on my screen here?
You've heard my presentation and testimony. Would you agree that it's true and accurate?
And would you adopt it as if it were your own?
Yes, sir.
Okay. And as to what I've mentioned about the drive-thru lanes, if you could have briefly, can you explain how the design still functions and is safe despite the fact that it has no physical barrier between the two lanes?
Correct. The store, as far as operations and drive-thru function, will continue to operate the same as it does today.
We are obviously expanding to create the additional second drive-through stacking.
Team members will have that team member safe zone, which is striped between the cars to facilitate and increase the ordering capacity to help facilitate that extra stacking moving through.
And you mentioned that you're familiar with the Chick-fil-A design, and I assume this is the current design.
of displaced on all new and retrofitted stores. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. Thank you. That's
all I have, Mr. Chairman. No question. So we stack the cars so that they don't go through
the parking lot and go into a cause problems. Is that right? Say again, Mr. Chairman?
Well, we're stacking. The purpose of stacking the cars, right, is so that you don't have a
single line that goes way out. Yeah, that's correct. If you take this double file and
make it a single file yeah we would be out so if not the cars would be way down the street down
no no the way that the way the uh alignment is it would be back on here which is butler street here
okay okay good all right questions from the board
no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands chair planning commission
thank you mr chairman david fecto with the city planning commission comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the commercial shopping area zoning at this location dimensional variances for vehicle
stacking lanes are minor and will not impact the use of the property however there is no condition
of this lot to prevent the stacking lanes from being separated in conformance with the zoning
code so the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the variances for vehicle
stacking lanes, but then denied the variance for stacking lane separation. Okay. MI 2022-007-113-2301
East Butler Street, I vote yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
LaMara Leonard Palmer, my vote is yes. Thank you, counsel. Okay, thank you.
Number seven, MI 2022-007-103-2926 West Oxford Street. Jared Klein is the attorney.
letter of non-opposition from brewery town shardswood community civic association
although although there are concerns about living space in the basement
mr klein good afternoon could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
certainly it's jared j-a-r-e-d last name is klein k-l-e-i-n uh from blank rome 130 north 18th
from Blank Rome, 130 North 18th Street, Philadelphia.
street in Philadelphia.
Do you swear or affirm to tell
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, the relationship to this property?
Certainly. My client is Bancroft Property Holdings, LLC, and they are the equitable owner.
They're under contract to purchase the property.
Mr. Holloman has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, Councilman. Do you agree with the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Good afternoon, Mr. Holloman. Yes, I do.
Did you email all the documents? Are these in advance to this? Did you meet with the RCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
Thank you. Please proceed and share the screen.
Thank you.
Okay. So we're here for 2926 West Oxford Street, which is currently a vacant lot
that is under agreement of sale for Bancroft property holdings to purchase it. The application
is for a four-family dwelling and the erection of a new structure for that purpose on this lot.
The refusals that we received involved the occupied area and yard depth and the use as multifamily, given that this is zoned RSA 5.
To give the board some context, this is the vacant property here.
I can zoom in a little bit.
This has been vacant for some time and is a corner property.
And so we back up to the side of the row homes that run here.
And that is a factor that goes into the hardship for the rear yard depth and that we're not backing up to someone's rear.
So the area that we have back there is less useful to begin with, given that it abuts the side wall.
The zoning map is here.
This is, again, the relevant property here coming off of North Myrtlewood Street.
The area around it, as you can see, is primarily zoned RSA 5, but as we discussed during the Civic Association meeting, there are several properties located on this block face and on this block face that are zoned for duplex, triplex, and up to six or five family use spread throughout this area here.
There were multiple people who attended the RCO meeting who shared their thoughts about the amount of existing multifamily in this exact area.
This is what the property looks like now and copies of the zoning notice.
As the board can see, this is not a large lot.
It is narrow and runs along the side of an existing structure here that needs to be attached to and backs up to the side of an existing building there.
These are additional photos of posting of the zoning notices and some shots of the immediate surrounding area for some additional context.
This is part of this would be the vacant lot here.
And there's multifamily located in some of these structures and in these structures across the street.
This is the zoning site plan.
plan. We are attaching, as I said, to this existing structure here. There is going to be
roof deck access. It is set back, but the upper units, units three and four, which are located
on the upper floors, will have access to that roof deck area. Floor plans are here. As I mentioned,
there is units three and four, which have access to this roof deck. These are units three and four.
And units one and two are bi-level units. As the chair noted, there was a comment about
living space in the basement from the RCO. We designed this in a way that there are large
window wells located both in the front and rear of the property to have natural light and an
egress point. And there are additional window wells located here on the side to provide additional
natural light to the bedrooms located in the basement area. We think that given the amount
of natural light that we're able to provide and the fact that these are bi-level units, that that
ameliorates some of the concern that's generally associated with basement living. We're not
having any units that are totally subterranean. They're all split level between the first and
second floor and then the third and fourth floor. Give the board a sense of what the
Give the board a sense of what the building would look like in context.