in the zoning code we believe this is the hardship and that's why we're here today
with this piecemeal approach essentially creating the brewery use which is not provided under the
code. If I can share my screen here.
Can the board see this then?
So this is the application from 2016. As the board can note, for this space, the Wissick
so this is this is the application for uh from 26
and Brewery, the application was for Tasty Groom accessory to the already approved adjacent
brewery. And also noted on this application was the retail sales of beer, clothing, and
souvenirs, as well as assembly and entertainment. Those same uses are subject to this current
refusal before the board the board did approve this project back in 2016 when the zoning permit
was issued it only reflected the sit-down restaurant it was the applicant's understanding
that those uses were included within that initial approval related to the
L&I issue with the use, L&I has issued guidance related to this brewery, but if by issuing
this guidance, L&I has also acknowledged this use of a modern brewery does not exist under
the zoning code and that any applicant for a brewery must apply for multiple uses under
multiple categories the effect of which has been practically on breweries in the city
is to appear before this board and have to receive relief of some sort in order to accomplish that
end as i mentioned at the beginning we have received the support of east falls community
council after meeting with them subject to the proviso of no outdoor events of amplified sound
That is not something that Whisk and Brewery intends to do. It's not in the nature of
the business model, which Mr. Gill will attest to later on in our presentation.
We have also received a letter of non-opposition from the Councilman Mr. Jones, a letter of support
from East Falls Forward, also a registered community organization for the East Falls area,
and a letter of support from the east falls development corporation
which represents and advocates for the advocates for the business community within the east falls
area as i noted uh we're here for a list of uh uses that are uh listed on the refusal um one being
the uh that the fact that this was before the board previously uh what we're asking for in
terms of that is that these uses are applicable to the entire structure both the tasting room area
and the brew house area as well as the outdoor area and those uses include the sit-down restaurant
use as well as the retail sale of apparel beer and food items souvenirs and other consumer goods
assembly and entertainment and the personal service and the reason that personal service
use has been identified by L&I is because Whistakin Brewing Company offers a recreational
yoga session. It's an opportunity to bring customers into the brewery. It's about 20
people who are instructed on yoga and then enjoy the facilities outside of that. As I stated
previously, we received that sit-down restaurant use in 2016 and understood that that approval
included the retail sales of beer clothing and souvenirs as well as
assembly entertainment what what our application represents in its entirety
is the ability for Wistic and Brewing to take the uses on this property and use
them throughout the property as you can see here this is Wistic and Brewing
company it is on the is accessed you know the address is 4705 ridge avenue it's accessed on
schoolhouse lane just above ridge avenue and kelly drive you'll see it's a decently sized facility
that includes both an industrial part and the gathering space
uh to take you inside to give the board an idea of how this works these are pictures of the uh
what operates now is the tasting room under the sit sit down restaurant use
um this is the interior shot it's a gathering space for the community
it has become very popular in the community uh plenty of gathering space inside however this
plenty of gathering space inside however this this area which is on the screen now is the
this area, which is on the screen now.
brew house area during hours when this property is not open to the public this is where the beer
is made canned distributed but in in hours when brewing is not in effect the concept here is to
use this additional space which is very large very open it has significant access to the outside
including two manned doors and three garage doors two of which are pictured
here as overflow space can provide for a larger group seating and this is where
those activities such as yoga or indoor cornhole league or quizzo night or some
some type of accessory space to the main tasting room area can be accommodated
as you see it's pretty pretty wide open here and this is the view outside furthermore I
do I do want to hit back on the fact that this this use is not provided within the
zoning code and we we find that to be an issue because every brewery including Wissigan Brewing
it has to go piecemeal for these uses it's not a true industrial use it's more than a retail use
it's more than a commercial use and the limitations of a sit-down restaurant use do not fully encompass
that the understanding by the public that this is a gathering space a place to spend the day
a place where you can go and do other accessory activities that might not take place in your
average restaurant um and one last thing before i asked mr gill to come on uh the brew the wissigan
brewery did conduct a survey at the request of uh east falls community council uh to to see uh to
garner support and where that support is coming from um this is a petition that was done in a
combination of uh an online survey form as well as uh response cards at the at the table individual
use response cards that were turned in the brewery received 906 responses of those 255
were directly in east falls those are community members that are coming to the brewery and are
supportive of the continued use of the property in this manner and another you know 428 were from
within the city of philadelphia this is a philadelphia business serving the east falls area
and is committed to supporting the community that is very community-minded in both what it does,
what it provides for the community, and also the interest takes in community in initiatives and
supportive charities that are relative to the community. I'd like to ask if Mr. Gill can be
recognized at this point good afternoon sir
mr gill good afternoon please identify yourself with the record
spell your first and last name good afternoon mr chairman and
um members of the board my name is timothy gill
t-i-m-o-t-h-y g-i-l-l and i am the president and owner of the
sick and brewing company thank you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do thank you please uh proceed mr halyak thank you mr chico uh mr gill did you
hear my testimony i did uh do you uh adopt as your own and testify to its accuracy i do uh mr gill in
addition to my testimony can you please describe for the board um what uh is involved in what we
consider the modern brewery use the same uh your model i don't want i'm sorry for interrupting i
i don't think we need to go that far we have a number of other cases i think we we get the
picture but thank you no disrespect but all right mr chairman i just like to know uh sharon again
what was that proviso was that no additional no outdoor events with amplified sound yes that's
right was there any other proviso just that okay thank you questions
no no no anyone else would anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
thank you planning commission good afternoon chairman members of the board
Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.
As stated by the applicant,
the zoning code does not include
an appropriate single-use category
for the multiple functions of a modern microbrewery,
forcing these applications to appear
before the zoning board to get community input.
Seeing as there is strong community support
for this proposal,
we do not oppose granting the use variances.
Thank you very much. MI 2020-001283, 4705 Ridge Avenue. My vote is yes with a proviso. No outdoor events with amplified sound.
Thank you very much.
MI 2020-0012...
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Yes with proviso.
Thank you and good luck Mr. Gill.
Thank you very much.
Next one up is MI-2020-001236-5001 Umbria Street.
Do we have an attorney here for Umbria?
Mr. O'Brien on our sheet.
anyone here for 5001 umbria street i'm promoting mr o'brien to a panelist you can unmute yourself
sir and wait to be sworn in good afternoon mr o'brien please identify yourself with the
records, spell your full name, and I'll swear you in.
Mr. O'Brien, you have to unmute yourself.
Ah, I'm sorry.
There we go.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
William O'Brien, 4322 Main Street, Philadelphia, 19127, on behalf of the applicant, Acre Street
Partners, LLC. With me here is Steve Oszewski, O-L-S-Z-E-W-S-K-I, a managing member of the
company. And also on this meeting is Chris Karakoff, the project architect.
We're going to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Thank you, please.
Do you agree to waive the reading of his refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior
to this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
if i may share my screen um uh go through the exhibits with you briefly um the uh just for the
record the tax clearance certificate uh and deeds are at pages 43 and 44 of the exhibit package
Page 2 is the refusal. This proposal has two use refusals. One is for multifamily dwelling
use. This is located in an industrial commercial mixed zone and residential is prohibited.
And the project proposes to disturb some steeply sloped area, approximately 6%. Strict application
the code presents a hardship and i'll address those issues briefly as i go forward pages
three and four are the letter of support from the ridge park civic association the development team
met with the zoning committee of the civic association and then following those meetings
there were two community zoom meetings one on september 8th the second on october 6th
At the October 6th meeting, I think there were over 75 participants, and the vote, as indicated
in the Civic Association's letter, was 50 in favor and six opposed.
I believe Marlene Scheffler, who's the president of the Civic, is probably on this meeting,
and there is one request.
uh the civic association has long expressed concern regarding umbria street has a lot of
vehicular traffic and it's also an essential link between the bicycle path along the schuylkill river
between kelly drive and the schuylkill river trail so it's been a lot of bicycle traffic and
the civic is hopeful that this development if approved uh will be the
provide the opportunity to create some traffic calming measures. And the Civic addresses that
in their letter in the last paragraph. Moving on to the project itself. This slide represents
the location. It is on Umbria Street, as I mentioned. It's between Parker Avenue and
Umbria Street. And in the bottom photo, you'll see the railroad. That is the R6 commuter
And in the bottom photo, you'll see the railroad, that is the R6 commuter rail line between
I don't know.
Norristown and Center City.
And the current uses next door is a 56 unit townhouse development.
And then up on Parker, you see mostly single family homes, the same thing on Paoli.
These are semi-detached single family homes is a single family detached home.
uh the current condition uh it's a composed of three different parcels uh on umbria street
there is the 200 foot frontage the lot itself is not that deep it's about 15 000 square feet
and then above it is a larger lot it's about 71 000 square feet with a driveway from paoli
combined it's a little bit it's about two acres combined the proposal is to consolidate those
three lots into one lot and the let me just bring this up this image is an aerial rendering of the
proposed structure uh it would be two buildings uh one on umbria street uh the second on the paoli
avenue site uh the umbria street building has uh 53 apartments uh and uh 19 parking spaces
um or 22 parking spaces rather and the paoli building above it uh is 125 apartments
with 92 parking spaces for a total of 114 parking spaces and 178 units.
The location of the site is proximate to both the 62 bus, the 35 bus, and as I mentioned,
the Ivy Ridge train station. The use, although it's not currently permitted in the ICMX zone,
it is what was recommended in 2014 by the planning commission the planning commission
identified two areas in the 21st ward to receive attention one was whistic and transfer station
whistic and maniunk area and then this is the ivy ridge station area that was also indicated for
a change in in use the property at issue is right where i'm holding my cursor and this area was
considered to be best used going into the future for transit oriented development mixed use
residential commercial the site and let me bring this down so it can be seen
the site is affected by two areas of steep slopes the area at the top that i'm pointing out is a
naturally sloped area that will not be disturbed the umbria street lot has a area of steep slope
which I'm indicating here it's about six percent of it well it's a little bit less than six percent
of the site and that is not a natural slope the slope above at the east end of the property is
natural this slope was created when this plateau was extended probably about 30 years ago by a
former owner. The zoning plan, there is a proviso plan for revisions. They're very minor. There
originally were two curb cuts on Umbria Street. The Civic Association preferred one cut and
that was that was done and then uh there was a gate uh shown on the paoli avenue entrance
the cdr process that was removed and there was a walkway pedestrian walkway introduced between
paoli avenue and the paoli building other than that there are no modifications to the original
plan presented to L&I. These are images of the Umbria Street building. It is five stories with
the fifth story a different material and set back so that it's sensitive to the streetscape
and it also includes a commercial space which is shown here as a possible restaurant.
This is an image of the same facade from a different angle showing the entrance,
the one entrance in the lobby area. The next two slides show the Paoli Avenue driveway entrance,
its landscaping and the pedestrian walkway and the final image is a just showing the facade of the
Paoli Avenue building.
the rest of the slides are site sections elevations and floor plans uh landscape materials um i'd be
happy to go through each of those um but let me first introduce again steve washefsky yeah would
you please be sworn in perhaps mr chairman sir please identify yourself spell your first and
last name uh steve oshefsky it's s-t-e-v-e last name is o-l-s-z-e-w-s-k-i i am the managing
partner of baker street partners you're swearing for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing