All right. Mr. Okolo, you heard everything I stated today.
Yes, I do.
And is it true and correct?
It's correct, yes.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
All right.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Defecto with the City Planning Commission.
This property is indicated for high-density commercial and residential mixed use on the city's comprehensive plan.
We believe that a parking lot fronting a major corridor is out of character with the surrounding area,
and we do not believe that there is a hardship.
Accordingly, we recommend against this variance.
If it wasn't for the Met, I'd say he'd agree with you.
I'm talking to myself a little bit right now.
Yeah, Mr. Chairman, the other thing I would state is actually the neighborhood, they embraced it because I think currently, well, not currently, but if the Met was open, when it was open, they were parking their trucks on North Broad Street, which actually anchored the residents.
I've seen that. That's why I'm in favor of it, though, because of that. It's a challenge when that net is operating for, like you said, staff, but not only staff, but people who are performers coming in with their trucks and buses or whatever.
All right. MI-2020-000455-842-North Broad. My vote is yes.
the performers are here my vote is yes my vote is yes
yes thank you sure calendar number mi-2020-001114
2275 bridge street number 39.
meredith ferlinger is the attorney i think
have murder you have been promoted to panelists you can share your screen and
unmute yourself i knew she was coming up here we go here's baby again
Listen, you know, again, I have an easy one for you, so I...
All right.
God, he's so cute.
Oh, yeah, he doesn't wake you up at 4 o'clock in the morning.
I've been there and done that.
Name and address for the record.
Meredith Ferliger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R, 1500 Market Street, Suite 3500E.
Thank you.
Do you swear for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I certainly do.
Do you also agree to waive and stip?
I sure do.
Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, which are proof of ownership,
tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property five days in
advance of the hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and if so, is there a letter?
I did email a packet five days in advance.
We did meet with the RCO, and there is a letter in the packet.
Thank you.
You may proceed.
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board i'm meredith ferliger of delworth paxton i'm here
on behalf of the property owner building 39 llc who's represented here today by craig weiser
we're here today with a request for a special exception to expand an already existing use of
the property at 2275 bridge street this is the notable frankfurt arsenal property that sits on
the south side of i-95 along to coney street the property itself is 38 acres and is zoned irmx
which is shown at tab 6 and is up on your screen
The property itself includes a variety of uses such as residential uses, charter schools,
office uses, and other commercial industrial type uses. You can see aerials of the entire
property which are included at tab 7 and also up at the screen. The property itself is separated
into many different condominium units. Today, the building that is known as Building 39 is before
the board. So Building 39 sits right at the intersection here. It's right at the corner of
Bridge Street and Tocconi. And as you can see in the photographs at tab 12, which I will bring up,
So, this is a one-story existing warehouse type of building.
the this is a one-story existing where warehouse type of
So, you can see in the photo here, it's this building here that has the loading bays.
Currently, the building is used as a commissary and catering kitchen slash restaurant.
Now, Craig is looking to expand this further to permit use of the building for banquet use.
Now, if I could, Craig, if you can hit the raise hand button.
i am here craig name and address for the record please my name is craig weiser w-e-i-z-e-r
uh the address of the property is 2275 bridge street building 39
mr chair do you need to swear him in yes do you swear from tell truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth? I do. Okay, Meredith, please proceed. Craig, can you just give the board a brief
understanding of how you use this building currently and what in a non-COVID world you are
hoping to ultimately do with the building? Sure thing. So just a little bit of history. This will
be our third location. We are primarily in the commissary business for shared kitchens for
food trucks and caterers uh this property came about so that we could provide a space
for the food and caterers to to present their food in the event space so any event that was
going on all the food would come out of that shared kitchen it would be a value add for our
tenants that's how we designed the kitchen and we designed the event space and it is obviously if
see it's fronted by probably 80 or 90 car parking spot parking lot which that was another huge uh
benefit for us thank you now floor plans of the structure are shown at tab five which i'll bring
up briefly so as you can see about half the existing building is used as the commissary
catering kitchen and then the other half is contemplated as the assembly entertainment
banquet hall type of space uh the banquet use will comprise about 2800 square feet
the current hours are monday through saturday 5 a.m to 11 p.m sunday 8 a.m to 9 p.m there's three
full-time employees although the hours and employees may certainly expand once the
holding an actual banquet or event becomes feasible. Trash is stored outside in two
commercial dumpsters and the facility does have approval from the health department. Now with
respect to the application, we received one referral for the proposed assembly and entertainment use.
The commissary catering use and the restaurant use were previously approved. As required by
Section 3037E.1 through .3 of the Zoning Code, the proposed assembly and entertainment use
meets the definition of a use permitted by special exception in the IRMX zoning district.
Furthermore, the use will not cause specific detrimental impacts to the neighborhood.
The proposed use will not cause congestion in the public streets.
As you can see in the photographs, this property is very isolated, given that it is on the south side of I-95.
So this does mitigate any impact to the residential areas on the north side of I-95.
The property is in a heavily industrial area and has a large parking lot to accommodate visitors.
given that the banquet use will generally be focused at night and weekends that further
mitigates any impact to the surrounding area. The proposed use will not cause any overcrowding.
The building itself is over 6,300 square feet with ample space to accommodate the existing and
proposed use. The building already has the commissary and catering kitchen and small
restaurant use, so this proposed use is a natural expansion of that and does harmonize with the
very mixed-use character of the Frankfurt Arsenal property. The use will not impair light and air
to adjacent properties as no physical changes to the exterior are proposed. The building is one
story and is lower than most of the surrounding buildings on the property. All of the nearby
residences are shielded by I-95. The use won't burden any public facilities nor will it injure
the use of adjacent properties. The area is zoned IRMX and is specifically contemplated
and is specifically contemplated for mixed industrial commercial residential use.
for mixed industrial commercial residential use.
The infrastructure is capable of supporting the existing and the proposed expanded use.
The proposed use will not endanger the public health or safety, nor is it inconsistent with
the comprehensive plan. The area is zoned IRMX and is specifically contemplated for commercial
and assembly use. The proposed use is in keeping with the impacts that are normally expected and
specifically as contemplated in the IRMX zoning district. We therefore assert we have met all of
the requirements of section 303.7E.1 through .3 of the code concerning entitlement to a special
exception. We met with the Bridesburg Civic Association earlier this month and they did
issue a letter of support at exhibit 11 specifically noting what a terrific addition
this will be to the arsenal and the community itself uh now craig have you heard all of uh
my testimony here before the board today i have and do you agree that that testimony is true and
accurate and would you adopt it as if it were your own i do and with that we would ask that
the board grant our application for special exception any questions
any questions from the board no no no is that a yes or no from the dogs
yes there are a few dogs
anyone else wish to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands at this time thank you uh planning commission mr chairman and members of the board
this property is indicated for industrial and residential mixed use on the comprehensive plan
the application matches the pattern of existing development in the area accordingly we have no
objection to granting this special exception. Thank you. MI-2020-001114 2275 Bridge Street
number 39. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes. My vote is yes.
Thank you everyone. Thank you.
calendar number mi 2020-00109 452 west washington lane
ron patterson is the attorney
Mr. Patterson, you have been promoted to a panelist.
You can share your screen as you wish, and unmute yourself to be sworn in.
Oh, God, drag around.
Here we go.
Ron, are you there?
Thank you.
I am here.
Thank you.
Can you put your name and address on the record?
Sure. Ronald Patterson, R-O-N-A-L-D-P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N of Claire Harrison Law Firm, K-L-E-H-R, 1845 Market Street, floor 14, Philadelphia PA, 19103.
Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you also agree to waive and step?
Have you mailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, photos and plans, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to all of the above.
Okay. You may proceed.
Great. Thank you.
so as you mentioned good afternoon this application regards 52-60 west west washington lane
with me is michael stamm s-t-a-m-m he's the owner if you could mike if you could
raise your hand so you could be admitted and unmuted he is with s-d-g-t-c-g washington lane
LLC, which is the owner. In early 2019, we obtained a buy-right permit for the structure.
At this location, I'm showing you these photographs. This is pre-construction or during
construction. Excuse me, Mr. Patterson. Yes, ma'am. We're still looking inside of your files,
if you can double click. Oh, okay, sure. I thought I did.
Okay, sure. I thought I did.
Let's see.
Can you see it now?
No, it looks like it's trying to open.
So sometimes what works is if you unshare and reshare with the file already open.
Can you see it now?
Yeah, we got the file now.
Yeah, we have it.
Okay, perfect.
We'll get it.
Here's a photograph I was mentioning before the start of construction, Washington Lane.
You'll notice that on either side of this building, there is residential uses and buildings.
This is a more current photograph of the building under construction.
It's a view across Washington Lane, you'll see twin homes further down the street.
so in in 2019 we had it obtained a buy right permit to construct a three-story building
located in CMX2 commercial zoning district having a commercial space on the first floor along the
front as required by the zoning district and floors one through three having 16 residential
dwelling units with two existing curb cuts on the property in the front see right one here and one
here. So at the time, it was designed to provide that commercial space. However, during the
construction, it was determined that they were unable to secure any tenant, despite that it
was marketed all this time to four brokers. And it's really at the stage where we can kind of
redesign and adapt the space into a residential unit which is what we're
asking for today so putting that residential unit in there generates a
use variance we're not providing the commercial space along the front ends of
the ground floor as I mentioned we believe that's one refusal we believe
that use refusal is justified in this case the hardship to comply with the
code for a viable project because of the property's location and the surrounding
uses as you see there's no commercial uses or spaces anywhere on that block it's not in context
nor conducive to this block as i mentioned the marketing has failed and it'd be worse failure if
we kept it vacant any longer once the building is opened we chose not to seek the variance in 2019
at the beginning of the process for the space to not be commercial but instead gave it a try
and we'll get to that in more detail. The second refusal has regards providing
parking spaces within the building and you'll see here, as I've noted, each of
the each of the yellow dots represent a parking space.
Sorry, I'll get to the right one.
I'm going to put in another document here.
Can you see this new document?
if you can enlarge it would be helpful sure you see the photographs no no okay
about now okay good okay so this is the show this regards the second variance we're also refused for
So this is the show.
This regards the second variance.
We're also refused for not providing an ADA parking space when providing these five parking spaces.
As I mentioned, we decided to use those existing curb cuts.
Here is the entrance to the parking area.
And as you drive in, you'll see that this is parallel parking.