yourself yes thank you we're happy to answer any questions questions from the board
did you tell me the ceiling height of the commercial space you don't mind switching
with derek here sorry about that the ceiling height's about 11 feet
other questions is the curb cut to get into the new 14 parking spaces an existing curb cut
yes there are existing curb cuts it may be shifted slightly but there are curb cuts and
has streets already reviewed the plans yes okay all the questions uh just a just a couple comments
i think this is nicely done um i just have to tell you this is one of the better projects that
i think i've seen in a while and i think it's good use of materials aesthetic in terms of the
aesthetics well designed um the massing is done well preserving the historic character of the
the rest of the block is is a is a testament to to good design and respectful design so
that's that's kind of all i have to say thank you very much i appreciate that nice job derek thank
other uh comments uh comments from our attorney no questions at this time mr from um the virtual
audience i see no hands chair planning commission good afternoon liz usually on behalf of the
philadelphia planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this
location from the current cmx3 commercial mixed use the occupied area and far are dominant
de minimis deviations but the appellant has not shown that there are unique physical circumstances
or conditions that would prevent the property from being used in conformance with the zoning code
regarding height the planning commission recommends the board deny the requested
variance for height but grant the requested variances for lot coverage and far so mi2026
666-003-792-148 North 2nd Street, I vote yes with proviso. Revised plans, two pages,
stamped by ZBA, October 28th, 2026. Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
Cheryl Gast, my vote is yes with proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso. Tywin, my vote is yes with proviso.
So Laila Beebe, my vote is yes, would provide that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great job.
Brandon.
MI 2026-003-820-10650 Busselton Avenue.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney.
We have a letter of support from Somerton Civic Association.
Brandon, could you please state and spell your name for this stenographer?
Excuse me.
My name is Brandon Saverin, spelled B-R-A-N-D-O-N, then S as in Sam, A-V as in Victor, R-A-N as in Nancy.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, sir?
Yes, I do.
Do you identify your client in relationship to the property?
okay this is a fun one my client is a fun one before you say his name i mean what is what's
that it's just you're gonna find out go ahead the property owner is a r c c
You're going to find out.
Go ahead.
The property owner is A-R-C-C-B-P-H-L-P-A-004-L-L-C.
That was the fun part.
All right.
That makes a lot of sense to us.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents in exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did.
And do you waive the reading of your refusals or stipulate to their accuracy?
So I waive the reading.
I don't step to the accuracy simply because, and I'll discuss this in a second, I believe that the refusals should have been characterized as dimensional refusals rather than use refusals, but I didn't challenge L&I, and I'd like the hearing to go forward under the current refusal.
Good. All right. Thank you. You can see your screen and proceed.
Thank you.
okay so members of the board um i am here on behalf of the um owner the landlord of this
citizens bank branch in northeast philadelphia on busselton avenue in the somerton neighborhood
um on your screen right now which is a photograph on our zoning plan is the existing
sign in the corner of the parking lot that serves the bank. And what this application seeks to do
is remove this sign, which was constructed in 2002, and replace it with this sign in the same
exact location. This sign right there that's a basic rendering would be 15 feet tall, which is
shorter than the current sign at 19 feet tall different shape obviously um but it's the same
corporate logo with the same font um that's that's the gist of the application i'll go
through the refusals and uh what we believe our hardships are so can i click the arrow there you
go okay um exhibit one which is on your screen right now is the notice of refusal issued by
ellen die it states that the application is for the replacement of one statically illuminated
freestanding sign you'll note at the top of the notice that our property is zoned rsa3
we are the only residentially zoned property on this block of busselton avenue on either side of
the street. All of the remainder of the properties are zoned either CMX or CA. It is an interesting
historical anomaly that the property is still zoned for residential use because there has been
a bank here since about 1973, according to the permits. So if this property had been remapped
even once in the past 50 years, we probably would have some form of commercial zoning and may not
be before you in order to replace the sign because the hardship is that the um the dimensional uh
rules at issue are very strict because they envision a sign in front of a home and the code
fathers the drafters did not want large signs in front of homes which is understandable
But this is a bank. So the sign that we've proposed, which has a face, that green area of about three and a third feet wide by 12 feet tall, is the minimum size that we believe can be legible and visible at the rate of speed at which cars drive down Busselton Avenue.
And same with the height. The refusals are for the sign face area on both sides and its height. And again, we feel that we're proposing the lowest and smallest sign that conforms with citizens national brand standards, but can still be reasonably legible from Busselton Avenue.
It's just one sign. We put it near the corner because that one sign basically indicates the location of both of the entrance driveways on Parlin Street and Busselton Avenue.
So, you know, to avoid clutter and to be minimalist here in accordance with the code, we just put one sign that's more or less adjacent to both driveways.
And I will show you more about that sign in one moment.
okay so exhibit two is a memo of law um the memo of law expands on the um hardship that i just
started to explain to you in greater depth the memo also explains why we believe we satisfy the
why we believe we satisfy the code's other requirement other requirements for these
codes, other requirement, other requirements.
variances um and um it does dive into a little bit the fact that i find these variances to be
dimensional in nature height size these are dimensional issues nonetheless um what i'm going
to propose is that um unless you find that we do not have the requisite hardship for use variances
which I believe we do, that we just move forward under the existing refusal, which calls these use variances.
And finally, at the tail end of the memo, I appended some of the historical permits just to prove that the current sign,
and again, this is going in really the same location in the ground, was approved by this board in 2002.
On your screen right now is a copy of the zoning permit and then the refusal site plan at that time and the notice of decision by this board.
And then also appended to the memorandum is the 1973 permit for which a variance was issued to construct the bank building.
Exhibit three is the zoning map.
It just shows you our parcel is highlighted there.
Again, we're the only parcel on either side of the street between Parlin and Lawler that
is not zoned for commercial use, which is part of what causes the hardship here.
Exhibit four are aerial and street level images from Atlas at the red arrow is the location
of the sign.
This is the bank where my hand is.
The longer side of the bank faces Parlin Street, but out of respect for the neighbors,
There is no wall signage that says citizens on that side of the building.
The signage is in the shorter facade that faces Busselton.
And then you have parking, ample parking that wraps around the entire structure.
I'm going to show you in a moment that where my hand is now directly across the street is a really large sign that identifies the stores in this shopping center.
our sign is very tasteful and rather small compared to that sign which we're directly
across the street from so you're showing us something bad that you know yours will be look
better yeah you could say that good good um and then behind us is what i believe used to be a wawa
in and that store uses the old wawa sign structure that is also a taller and larger sign than us
on a similar corner the corner with lawler street so again our sign in comparison to the surrounding
signs is appropriate and and i believe considerably smaller as well so here we go um that one more
time is our sign just stepped back a little bit from the fire but that's smaller than one that
was there well that's our sign now that's that i know that's going to be removed and the sign that
we're replacing that with is four feet shorter yes yep that's right also narrower as well
uh one more photo there and one more photo just facing different directions this now is north
along busselton and that former wawa structure is in the background so this is what you see
directly across busselton from us the busselton somerton shopping center that's that very large
multi-tenant sign I mentioned and just shows you that this is a commercial auto-oriented context
and then there's the Wawa building behind us it's not now called green farm convenience store and
it uses the Wawa's old sign which is way taller than ours just photos of our zoning posters that
went up three weeks ago showing you what the bank looks like in the front it's been modernized over
the years by citizens. Exhibit six is our zoning plan. It featured the photo I showed you earlier,
and it just has a close-up of the sign with dimensions. Again, the green face part I think
is about 12 feet tall. The entire sign is 15 feet tall. It's about three feet and a third wide,
about one foot and a third thick. And then at exhibit seven, I have the construction plans,
the building permitting plans that are ready to go and will be submitted if we can get zoning
approval. I believe, let me keep going here for one second. Exhibit eight is going to be the RCO
decision letter. So my witness and I attended this RCO meeting in person. Somerton Civic was
the coordinating RCO. The vote was 33 votes in favor, three opposed, and they don't believe that
any near neighbors showed to the meeting. The remainder of the exhibits, I'm not going to show
uh the remainder of the exhibits i'm not going to show they're the deed tax clearance copy of
They're the deed tax clearance cop.
the zoning code etc okay um what do you bring your client so my witness pursuant to a letter
at exhibit 15 works for the um sign company that the landlord hired and his name is frank driscoll
frank can you raise your vote and he's going to be coming back in as a panel thank you
Mr. Driscoll?
Okay, sir.
Hello.
Hi, sir.
Could you please state and spell your name for the sonographer?
Frank Driscoll, F-R-A-N-K-B-R-I-S-C-O-L-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel.
Frank, can you state the name of your employer?
Okay. And you are the sign designer, AGI is, is that correct?
I am the project manager of the site. Yes.
Okay. Thank you. And you're authorized to speak on behalf of the LLC that owns the property today,
correct? Yes.
Did you hear my testimony in your case this afternoon?
Was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Yes, it was.
and would you therefore adopt it as if it were your own testimony on behalf of the property owner
yes okay thank you very much questions from the board
this is going to be internally illuminated yes um it's internally illuminated um it i believe
sort of starts to uh be illuminated at um twilight and ends at dawn uh frank does have
information on uh brightness if you'd like that and the current sign that's being torn down is
also illuminated in a similar manner okay and so we're not talking about any disturbance to the
residences which are right across i think it's very comparable to the existing sign and we did
not hear any comments about illumination at the rco meeting the um to be totally candid the only
negative comments at the rco meeting had to do with citizens policies as a bank
which couldn't do much about sign part of that nope all right i guess a point though is that
the old sign is only seven feet high and the new sign is 15 feet high which would right no the old
sign per the 2002 permit set is 19 feet high okay so um we're four feet shorter as long as the old
permit set is accurate okay yeah all right questions for our attorney no questions at
this time questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no hands chair we need commission
good afternoon liz fuselay on behalf of the philadelphia planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing rsa3
residential single family attached the proposed sign is consistent with surrounding commercial
signage and along this commercial corridor the appellant has shown that the proposed signage
will have no detrimental impacts beyond what might be expected the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant the sign variance mi 2026 003 820 10650 busselton avenue i vote yes
Michael Johns, my vote is yes
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes
Iowyn, my vote is yes
Leila Beebe, my vote is yes
Thank you, Brenda
Thank you very much
MI 2026
1550 North 26th Street
alan could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer alan knockamson a-l-a-n
last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n right you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do um so alan i i do have some updates here um the one is the things that
So, Alan, I do have some updates here.
The one is the things that you're going to talk about,
You're right.
the different changes you've made,
but I also have a letter of strong opposition from Brewery Town.
Yeah, I wouldn't characterize it as strong.
Well, somebody sent that to me and said strong opposition.
Did we say that? Maybe I'm wrong.