that there was a shooting range here etc in the past. So residential use is not currently
available here. We do think that self-storage as sort of a buffer use, not a very active commercial
site type use, is more appropriate here because again the property has this history and environmental
restrictions on it. Another technical refusal based on the use is the parking refusal. As you're
As you're familiar with self-storage, as they pop up throughout the city, parking calculations are
familiar with self-storage as they pop up throughout the city, parking
based on square footage. Well, for a self-storage use, you don't have the flow of customers coming
in and out during the day as you would a typical commercial use. Therefore, we often find that the
120 parking spaces required would sit vacant for the bulk of the day. So what we're proposing here
is 11 spaces. And again, that's consistent with our experience in other locations. Again,
we did receive a technical refusal for ADA spaces, but that is proportionate to what
we're proposing from our 11 spaces. We did receive refusal for signage at this location,
and you can see that on the renderings here. We're just proposing a monument sign out front
as the building is set back, as well as some wall signage. I can make that bigger so you
on the face of the building, both fronting Ogonts and fronting towards Central High School.
And again, the idea here is that this is a pretty vacant stretch of Ogonts. There's nothing really
between us and Central and us and Worcester Woods on the other side. So to identify this building
in enough time to allow customers to enter, we do anticipate needing signage here.
and then the last refusal is a slight height refusal um we're at 40.5 feet and 38 feet is
permissible in this district because again it's a residential district but if you'll know and i
think the best place to look at this is really the aerial um there's a huge slope at the back
of this site where it slopes down to the property so the height really won't be visible from anyone
LaSalle sits above us, and Central sits to north up Ogance Avenue, so the height's really not going
to be measurable, and again, it's just a slight increase in height due to the slope of the site.
I have with me today Sarah Wuergen from BSS and LaSalle and Beyond Self Storage, as well as
Kevin Pollitt from Studio North, the architecture firm, and Anthony Caponegro from Kimley Horn.
One issue that was raised at CDR was potential traffic along Ogons Avenue. Again, this was a
concern of the RCO as well. We did do a traffic letter. Kinley Horn can speak to that in more
detail if necessary, but their findings are pretty clear that it would be less than a 1% impact on
local traffic. Again, because you're not having customers come in and out throughout the day,
most likely you're having someone rent space, drop off their belongings, and you may not see
them again for another year or however long their lease lasts. So those are the typical
things we've noticed in our experience operating these centers in other locations.
Again, we do not feel like this use would negatively impact the neighborhood. Again,
it's actually a better use, we feel, for this site because it's promoting less traffic than
some more active uses would. Additionally, we don't feel like we interfere with the uses surrounding
us. Again, the surrounding neighbors are LaSalle, Central, and the City of Philadelphia. You have
letters of support from both LaSalle and Central in your packets. And lastly, we do not feel like
we would be a negative impact and out of context with the neighborhood because, again, we're being
responsive to the context around us. We're building into the slope behind us, and we're really not
going to be interfering with the neighboring uses at our site because again we're surrounded
by public land and the two university the university and the high school um i believe
sarah worgen is on the call can she be promoted just to adopt my testimony
Sarah can you raise your hand so they can see you can you hear me yes can you state your name
and address for the record yes my name is Sarah working uh w-e-r-g-i-n address is 4825
Northwest 41st Street, Suite 500, Riverside, Missouri, 64150.
Sarah, have you heard my testimony today?
Let me swear in, please.
Do you swear in, firm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Sarah, have you heard my testimony today?
Would you agree that it is true and correct?
Would you adopt it as your own?
Great.
So we are available if the board should have further questions, but I believe those are all of our exhibits for today.
Thank you. Any questions from the board?
Anyone else would like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your hand.
Here we have Charles Richardson. Charles, you can unmute yourself.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Board.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and board.
Good afternoon, Mr. Richardson.
Good afternoon, Mr. Richardson. Please identify yourself. You're still under oath.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
Councilwoman has no objections as long as the RCO did give a letter of support this afternoon.
We do have a concern with regard to egress and ingress, though, because of the fact that with Ogons Avenue,
It tends to be a speedway coming down the street, and we would probably suggest that it be a right-hand turn only as far as exiting the property as opposed to trying to cross Ogons Avenue to make a left-hand turn.
They would have to figure out how to do that beyond, but that's the only suggestion that we would give, but there is no opposition to the variances.
Thank you. Was there any discussion about that, Kate, during the RCO meeting?
Well, there wasn't an RCO meeting, but it was raised during CDR as a potential issue. We did
have the traffic letter completed. Is someone from Kinley Horn on the line that can speak to
the impact? I think because the impact here anticipated to be so low from a traffic generation
standpoint, again, you're not having customers coming in and out throughout the day. I don't
believe that that was considered necessary but kimley horn can speak better to that well again
without belaboring the point i think only where that would be accomplished would be for signage
so you know a sign would say no left hand turn or something like that right all right
i'm sorry anyone else tanya i have anthony anthony you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in
anthony good afternoon full name spell your name for the record name and address
Good afternoon. My name is Anthony Cappanigro. I am with Kimley Horn and Associates. I'm at 50 South 16th Street.
Could you spell your last name, please?
Yes, sorry. C-A-P-O-N-I-G-R-O.
And you swear to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
Mr. Chairman, this is our engineer that prepared our traffic letter.
Yes, thank you.
Sure. And to Kate's testimony she provided in regards to our traffic assessment of this property, it's a pretty insignificant impact to the traffic conditions along Oguns Avenue just based on the hours of peak.
A lot of the peak periods for this type of use occur outside of the respective commuter peaks and even after school hour peak times, especially with the restriction on 9 a.m. openings that will occur after school openings.
And then in the afternoon, the peak in the afternoon kind of comes, you know, a little after lunchtime around the 1.30 p.m. time.
And again, that's prior to commuter traffic and prior to school letting out.
So we do feel that, you know, the traffic associated with this project will be very minimal and have a very low impact to the site.
and you know given the the recommendation from the councilwoman's office we can certainly look
into that with our client to see if they have a right turn only uh condition is something that
um you know would be acceptable here or would work well here and and we can look into that a
little further thank you um i do have a question a question kate i'm not sure it's for this 9 a.m
still has me a little bit confused maybe I'm not understanding it it says not no no activity or
operations not prior to 9 a.m well it could be 11 o'clock p.m so I mean I'm just trying to figure
that out wouldn't it be easier if you had some you know I'm just using it as an example no
activity between 8 and 9 a.m or something like that because when you say nothing before 9 a.m
that's oh could be anytime um i think what our intention was that our office wouldn't be open
before 9 a.m it'll be open from 9 to 6 so we're happy to agree to 9 to 6 if that's well if that
works for you again i'm not trying to yeah totally limit you but you understand what i'm saying
because it was kind of for me it was open-ended when you say nothing until 9 a.m it would be again
it's just our office hours okay um all right it'd be nine to six very good all right uh anyone else
have any comments or quite uh excuse me anyone else like to testify in this case if so please
raise your hand sure i have someone with the acca name i believe that's the representative of the
rco sandra brought us yes hello hi good afternoon ma'am please spell your first and last name for
yourself, identify yourself, give us your address. Sandra, S-A-N-D-R-A, Broadus, B-R-O-A-D-U-S.
S-A-N-D-R-A, Broadus, B-R-O-A-D-U-S, representing a concern, Community Association, ACCA.
We are the coordinating RCO for this property.
Address 5801 Ogons Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19141.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you. Please proceed.
As the coordinating RCO, we did negotiate this variance with our zoning committee in
that aside from the owner who is LaSalle University, who was also the nearest property, there were
only five other addresses to represent the community to review this case. ACCA did review
this before COVID, and we have since reviewed it after the design review. And the biggest concern
is, in fact, the traffic. And your confusion about why we are concerned mostly about the morning
drive is because that stretch of Ogons Avenue is the thoroughfare to the 76 highway which
the entire community going all the way up to Sheltonham Avenue travels down Ogons Avenue
to get to that point and traffic does back up every day under normal conditions for 10
blocks easily as a result of that intersection right there where people are trying to come
in and get to this 76 highway. We are very concerned that the two curb cuts proposed by
this applicant are going to have cars coming in and out of bumper to bumper traffic in the morning
instead of from one location. We've asked that that be something that we that is revisited.
I'm hoping that perhaps this can be entered in as one of the provisos as we move forward
at this point, because I know these conversations kind of disappear after these hearings.
The other thing is we, I'm losing my train of thought. Oh, the sign. The property,
and it was very important during design review, the property has the armory property is on the
historic register. It is considered a part of the community dignity and it is important that
what replaces it is just respects that and it was asked that the signage be reduced so that it is
not so so glaring across the front of the building and that was another thing that we
hope that can be considered um and again as the only voice of representation of the community
in this process um those are the things that we are interested in other than that we have
no objection to the revised proviso plan presented thank you um can i just respond briefly yes please
I'll just respond that we did have the traffic reviewed, and that's why we are sticking with the double entrance,
because it was a concern for a safety perspective that one entrance would cause a backup were someone trying to turn into the facility on Ogons Avenue.
By having the through driveway, we are able to funnel traffic through our site rather than back up onto Ogons.
And with respect to the signage, that's also a safety issue, because again, there's nothing surrounding our site.
So in order to notify people of the location in enough time that they're able to safely turn into the site rather than slam on the brakes the last second, we do need to add signage to the building itself so that it can be seen in enough time to make that turn.
Understood. Thank you.
So I just want to be clear.
So the office hours would be limited 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.?
Correct.
so we would avoid that morning rush yeah yeah i get i get the reason for that i wasn't when
you just said 9 a.m it means understood many many hours before 9 a.m you might understand all right
okay all right any other questions anyone else have any comments please please raise your hand
um this is sandra again hands at this time chair
this is sondra again hands at this time chair
Thank you.
sorry say that again tanya no more hands at this time okay planning commission
chairman and members of the board this property is indicated for residential use on the comprehensive
plan this is paula burns i'm sorry the applicant has indicated that how little traffic this site
will generate and that it appears to make the excessive signage not needed and out of place
next to the high school and a park accordingly we would ask that the wall signs be reduced
in area and height but also give the opportunity to the applicant to create a better designed
entrance which would catch people when they're using gps to get to the site
any recommendations on the size of the signage
we would lean towards uh what would be permitted in a cmx2 district i don't have that number
calculation off the top of my head. Kate, could you add anything to that? Yeah, I mean, the reason
we're receiving a refusal on the signage isn't due to the size. It's actually because we're
zoned residential. So no signage whatsoever is permitted here. The size of the signage actually
hasn't even been reviewed. It's more or less the fact that we're proposing signage at all
is the issue. Understood. All right. MI-2020-0000405350 Ogons Avenue. My vote is yes
with the proviso. Office hours restricted between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Yes, with proviso.
Yes, with proviso.
MI 2020-000722, 5900 North 5th Street.
i have no hands for this one is anybody here for fifth street anybody here for five nine zero zero
north 5th street no hands i have hands but i need the hands i will lower them all yeah only
raise your hand if you're here to speak on 5900 north 5th street only the applicant
or the attorney first um this is sharon sletta the attorney i believe is jermaine harris
they did submit I don't have anything exhibits and we've received an RCO letter and non-opposition
and um something from the councilwoman as well I don't have a Jermaine is their attorney
for this case Jermaine Harris is the attorney right but I oh sorry she's asking if he's out
Are you the attorney or presenter for this case?
I'm the pastor of the congregation.
We are expecting that our attorney would be here to speak to this.
Well, why don't we do this, Pastor?
We'll move on to some of the other cases, and we'll come back to you.
We have three other cases here.
We'll come back to you.
So let's go to page number 10.
M-I-2020-000672-3017 Ridge Avenue.
I have Ellen Notkinson.
You've been promoted to panelists.
You can share your screen and wait to be sworn in.
Good afternoon, Mr. Notkinson.
Please identify yourself, spell your name.
Excuse me.
I'm sorry, this is Sharon Soleta, I don't like to interrupt,
but Kate Missimer was, she left too early