If we move to the left, we have Stokely Street, Coulter Street, as I said, Fox Street previously, and then we end.
Immediately adjacent to us, Mr. Chairman, you'll remember or note that the Philadelphia University abuts us.
Right.
And that property is zoned Spins District.
The plan that you're seeing before you, which is one of the revised plans, I have to tell you is part of an extensive and very productive community engagement process that has spanned quite some time.
The master plan process has gone on with community engagement for several years, frankly, if not more.
The lower school project has been the subject of community engagement for over a year.
And we're really proud of the fact that we've reached consensus and have a plan before you that is supported by East Falls, is not opposed by the Fox Lane RCO.
Let me describe a little bit about the square footage, and then I'm going to ask to promote our architect, traffic planner, and civil engineer to provide additional testimony, if that's okay, Mr. Chairman.
members. And maybe too, Mr. Kelson, could you show photos that would give us an idea of where it is?
Why don't we do that first? In fact, I think that's a good point. Yeah.
Jared, if you could take us through actually the full exhibit package, let's do it that way.
Starting, there we go. So members of the board, here's an overhead view of the existing campus
bounded by the streets I refer to, our posting photographs.
Exhibit four will show you the existing conditions of the Timmins House property.
Again, a historic property that will review our application for parking.
You can see the Timmins House, which is located at the upper portion of the campus.
the new lower school existing conditions
quickly our zoning map showing the zoning designation this is a helpful exhibit i
believe members of the board it shows the campus um with the existing buildings
that's the main campus strawbridge is on the opposite side of schoolhouse lane we're giving
that to you for context, pretty much our athletic facilities. But you can see the existing campus
in red to the top of the screen is Timmins and the parking improvements I spoke about in a moment.
And you'll hear a bit more from Mr. Talley when he testifies. In the red area to the bottom of
the screen is the area where the lower school will be created, the new lower school, and
parking area. Jared, let's keep going. This is a more detailed rendered view of the Timmins
Garden, Timmins House, and parking. Here are photographs before and after,
existing condition of the house, proposed conditions after hopefully the grant of approval,
extensive landscaping, and buffering. Next, here's the new lower school we're drilling in now,
and you can see its footprint. It's 80,000 square feet of floor area. It has a footprint itself
of about 45,000 square feet.
Here's some rendered elevations
of the proposed new lower school.
Its scale, its scope,
the materials are of the highest caliber and quality.
This will be a LEED gold proposed development.
Our front entrance to the new school, view from Coulter Street neighbors, extensive landscaping, sustainability is prominent.
our front entrance to the new school.
This is a view from next door Thomas Jefferson, known as Philadelphia University, from their parking lot.
And now you'll begin to see elevations of the new lower school in context.
An important slide in terms of compatibility with the existing campus in terms of massing, height, and floor area.
It's great for you to show you the new lower school in context with other buildings on the campus.
And it also gives you a good feel for our adjacent property owners, Philadelphia University, as well as a number of our residential neighbors.
You can begin to see Strawbridge across the way and some of the athletic fields from this view.
Now you're beginning to see our revised plans, our proviso plans, starting at Exhibit 6.
Let's keep going.
And let's hold here.
This is a fundamental point I need to make and want to make to the board and to the community.
As a result of concerns and comments raised during our community engagement process, the school has decided to retain the existing driveway that accesses the main campus from Schoolhouse Lane, but we are modifying the driveway in a manner to facilitate traffic flow in a more efficient way.
That will be more further described by Mr. Talley, but what you can see here is we're adding, in essence, an additional lane and affording a lane for queuing.
I should point out to the board that one of the reasons that the impervious coverage variance is needed, we are currently allowed 20% impervious coverage.
The campus currently has 20.3%. We are proposing 21.7%, a de minimis increase, but that increase is being generated by the reconfiguration of the driveway to facilitate traffic flow, as I just mentioned.
okay keep going thank you uh illustrations of connectivity another important point for the
board to be aware of currently at the top of the property where it um intersects with the oak road
or touches the oak road there is an access point where there's a curb where individuals can
access the campus from the Oak Road. That curb cut will now be completely closed off. There will be
no direct access to the campus from the Oak Road in an effort to minimize traffic flow and
inconvenience to those individuals residing on the Oak Road. This plan shows you not only that,
but also the connectivity that's a sidewalk that is moving from the upper portion of the campus to the Timmins parking area.
And then as we go further down to the next slide, please, you will start to see how the connectivity spans the campus and leads to the new lower school, reconfigured parking areas, etc.
I won't spend a great deal of time on these slides. These are stick elevations showing massing of the new lower school. You'll hear testimony from our traffic engineer.
This is his report is contained on Exhibit 7. That's parking sufficiency analysis. Our parking study is Exhibit 8. And Exhibit 9 details the current situation regarding the steep slope issue we spoke about.
These aerials clearly show that there is structure and has been structure created in the area LNI considers to be disturbed slope, natural slope.
L&I considers to be disturbed slope, natural slope.
Next one.
These were taken, by the way, in 1996.
If we now move on to this plan, what this is showing as part of the revised plan set,
the areas in pink toward the bottom of the plan show areas of slope disturbance.
But again, these are man-made conditions. There's structures there now. Jared, let's keep going. And just to reiterate the comment I made about the percentage of impervious coverage, 20% is permitted by code in the Wissigan Watershed Overlay, Category Area 1.
The existing is 20.3.
Yes, I'm sorry, 20.3.
And we're proposing 21.7 and change.
De minimis, again, I repeat.
We now move to the exhibit package that details the East Falls Community Council letter of support.
I believe that is in the zoning board file.
It's dated October 24th.
I will not read it, but certainly it reflects the significant amount of time and attention all parties have devoted to this project.
It was unanimous in its decision to support the proposal before you today, members of the board.
letter dated October 25th, 2022, addressed to the chairman. This is from the Fox Lane RCO,
a newly formed RCO that consists of residents that are located on Fox. That's with two X's
lane, which is on the opposite side of Schoolhouse Lane from the campus.
And you can see no objection. And primarily, their no objection letter was issued as a result of the traffic impact study. But also, I think, equally, probably more importantly, our commitment to keep the existing drive and make modifications to it.
I don't want to speak for the RCO. I don't know if Wendella Fox is present, but that's the sum and substance about that RCO letter.
And lastly, this is the email I referred to sent by Joshua Cohen, Chief of Staff, to Council Member Curtis Jones, indicating no opposition to this application.
uh keep let's keep going just to fill out the package
thought you i thought the board might get a kick out of this here's our deed dated june 5th 20
1903 um handwriting was a lot better in those days
we've been here a long time
and then Jared let's just end
on the
tax clearance
this is civic design review
we've completed that process
and then finally
our letters of, we've sent notifications, as I indicated previously, based on the revised refusal
and the last hearing of the East Falls Community Association was October 19th, 2022.
Mr. Chairman, I'll pause for a bit, and then we can call our first witness, or if the board pleases, we can have all the witnesses promoted.
Mr. Kelson, how many witnesses do you have?
I have three expert witnesses.
Relative to what?
One's a traffic, what else?
Traffic, civil engineering with regard to the impervious coverage and slopes, yes, and the driveway configuration, if there's a question.
And then lastly, Conrad Talley, who was our project architect, will give an overview of the project, should the board wish.
I think the key would be, let's have your traffic person.
OK, and then maybe the civil engineer. I don't know that we need to. I think you did a pretty good job of covering most of the other issues. So why don't we go with the traffic engineer?
And then maybe the civil engineer.
I don't know that we need to, I think.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And please indulge me because we do have opposition, so I do need to make more of a record. But I'd like to, I also will offer to affirm my testimony when appropriate, Mr. Hal David Al, and I'll introduce him later on. I'm not going to introduce him again.
All right. Can we promote Andy Heimrich, please, our traffic engineer? We'll start with him.
sir please unmute yourself
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
andreas heinrich a-n-d-r-e-a-s-h-e-i-n-r-i-c-h right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do proceed mr kelson thank you very much um mr heinrich
are you a traffic engineering expert? Yeah, I'm a licensed civil engineer and certified as
professional traffic operations engineer. Have you testified at zoning hearing boards and other
bodies as a professional traffic engineering expert? Yes, I have. And have you participated
in zoning board hearings or other hearings in the city of Philadelphia? Yes, I have.
Members of the board, you'll note at Exhibits 7 and 8, you'll see Mr. Hendrick's reports.
I would ask to have him certified as an expert traffic engineering witness.
We'll certify that his main field is traffic engineering. I hear you.
Thank you very much.
So, Heinrich, I'm going to ask you to start with a document that you prepared dated October 14th, 2022. That's on the screen right now. Do you see that document, sir?
Yes, I do.
Did you personally prepare that document?
Yes, I did.
And what was the purpose of preparing that document, sir?
The document is entitled Parking Assessment, and we just reviewed the parking situation for William Penn Charter School.
And can you just tell the board briefly how many parking spaces will be provided to support the campus development?
There will be a total of 319 parking spaces on campus, plus an additional 32 parking spaces that will be leased from a church across Schoolhouse Lane from the campus for a total of 351 parking spaces.
Has the parking ratio been increased, Mr. Hyland?
I believe it's been increased for the 32 leased parking spaces, but I think the 319 parking spaces has more or less remained constant.
Right. Thank you. And did you make a determination about the adequacy of those, that amount of parking to support the proposed development that's before the board today?
And what were your conclusions, sir?
I believe the numbers are, bear with me a second, 215 parking spaces will be needed for staff and
teachers, 15 parking spaces for visitor guest parking, and 75 parking spaces for student
parking for a total of 315 parking spaces based on the results of the traffic study that we will
get into next we have reviewed in and out traffic movements based on cars accumulating on site if
you will and we find that when you deduct cars in line for parent drop-off and pickup that
as little as 235 parking spaces are needed on a typical day for the peak parking demand of the
day. So in our opinion, there's the number of parking spaces I listed, 351 total parking spaces
represents an adequate parking supply for the William Penn Charter School. And that also takes
into account a slight increase in enrollment from 947 students in 2017 to 2018 prior to COVID.
to, in 2017 to 2018 prior to COVID, 970 students during the COVID period 20 to 21, and then a
projection to 1,001 students in 2025 to 2026 academic year. Is that correct? Yes, that is
correct. Thank you. Members of the board, if there are any questions on the parking assessment,
I'm happy to take those and answer those. Otherwise, we'll move to the power of the traffic assessment.
Okay, hearing none. Mr. Heinrich, before you is a report titled updated traffic access study.
October 14, 2022. Do you see that? Yes, I do. Did you prepare that report yourself?
Yes, I did.
Was the report a revision or an update to previous traffic access studies that you did on behalf of the William Penn Charter School?
Yes, it was.
And did you take actual traffic counts as part of what I'll call the October 14, 2022 analysis?
Yes, all new traffic count data was taken in the last week of September of 2022, with two additional intersections added to the study area from previous versions of the traffic study.
And do you identify the various intersections at which those counts were taken in your report?
Yes, I do. And there are a number of or a series of figures attached to the report that outline or summarize the traffic volumes and the levels of service for the updated traffic counts and analysis completed as part of this study.
Based on these counts, based on your understanding of the proposed development of the site, and by the way, Mr. Heinrich, did you, as part of the traffic analysis, utilize the proposed reconfigured schoolhouse lane driveway as part of it?
That was part of our analysis of future conditions, yes.
Great. So did you reach a conclusion as to what impact, if any, the proposed development would have on traffic generation in the immediate area?
Yes, we did. Basically, if I could oversimplify a little bit, the master plan has effectively already been implemented insofar as traffic patterns in the area of the campus are concerned.
because the parent drop-off and pickup effectively blocks traffic from conveniently being able to cross campus from the Coulter-Stokely side of the campus to the schoolhouse lane side of the campus.
What remains to happen is that the dually parking lot will be eliminated in favor of the new lower school building and pretty much be replaced by the new Timmons School, I mean the Timmons House parking lot off the bus lane.
So bearing that difference in mind, once you redistribute traffic for the before and after cases of implementing the final versions of the master plan, in traffic engineering parlance, we deal with what's called levels of service, levels of service A through F.
And without getting into a whole lot of detail, most movements today work at level of service B with a handful of C's and one D. After the implementation of the master plan, there will be relatively no change in levels of service as a result of the redistribution of traffic.
What will change is you'll see traffic delay diminish a little bit on the Stokely-Coulter side of the campus, and you'll see delay increase a little bit on the Schoolhouse Lane side of the campus.
But as I said, levels of service will not change.
The changes in delay, vehicular delay, will remain within the levels of service category we currently see.
So for most motorists traveling in the vicinity of the campus, you won't notice a change in traffic patterns as a result of implementation of the master plan.
as a result of implementation of the master plan.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
So let me ask you this question.
Will the proposed development, including the Timmins parking
area, as well as the new lower school,
have a negative impact on traffic utilizing the Oak Road?
In my opinion, there'll be a positive impact because currently the smaller Timmins House parking lot has its access via the Oak Road that will be closed off in favor of new access to the enlarged Timmins House parking lot, which will have access from the bus lane.
So the traffic that is currently using the Oak Road to access the existing parking lot will be eliminated from using the Oak Road and will transfer to the bus service lane in large measure.
So I foresee a somewhat slight decrease in traffic along the Oak Road, which will reduce traffic delay for users of the Oak Road.
In conclusion, is it your expert opinion that the levels of service that are currently being experienced and anticipated to be experienced in an urban setting such as this are acceptable?
Yes, they are. They are currently acceptable and will continue to be so.
great i have no further questions mr miller
yes uh you want to cross uh yeah just very briefly uh proceed if i may sir uh i noticed
in the uh your traffic study and in your calculations that you uh presented to the
board uh you talked about a total of 305 parking spaces using the low end of the students
vehicles that you projected being 75. Your report indicates 75 to 125 in that there's the 50
student difference. If you add those additional 50 students, that puts you somewhere up in 350.
Is that correct? Could you go over those numbers again? I don't understand what you're referring to.
Your parking study indicates... Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you were...
Highside traffic study, I apologize.
Sorry.
The parking study estimates 305 parking spaces.
What that accounts for are 215 employees, 15 spots for guests and visitors, and 75 for students.
Your study itself, if you read the details, say 75 to 125 for students, given that that's a pretty large variance for 50 students.
If you add those 50 students in, you're now talking about a need for 350-some parking spaces, which exceeds what is being proposed. Is that correct?
I agree with the numbers you've quoted, but I don't necessarily agree with the way you categorize it.
That's the way you categorized it.
Well, as I said, the numbers are correct. But we're talking about on campus versus surrounding areas. There's additional parking in the leased lot of 32 spaces, which does bring us to 351.