letter that they said they sent out
on May 18th for the neighborhood
for concerned citizens
or concerned neighbors
I would have been somebody to receive that and I
I did not receive anything like that because I would have went to that
meeting to object it.
I want to state that about the parking issue.
If the area that they are trying to take multiple units,
use that as a non non sanctioned parking lot.
I know that because I had an issue where I had tools stolen from there one
day and the police really weren't going to do anything because they know it as a lot
The police really weren't going to do anything because they know it as a lot used for parking in the area.
If you also look in the area itself, right on the corner of Girard and Broad, they're planning to build a 400 apartment unit, which will clutter the area, as well as one block back.
I cannot remember, but it's towards the back facing of 1435 West Gerard Avenue.
There are two brand new apartment complexes that haven't even opened up yet that are going to create more clutter.
So, by putting those apartment units in there, I understand it's been open as a space, but it is not a good place to put it because it will put more congestion in the area that is already there.
Mr. Chair, can I respond?
You can.
you get uh uh so as far as sending out notice uh to the community uh we take that very seriously
uh you know we just blindly get whatever the state planning commission tells us the addresses
we mail those addresses and we get a certificate of mailing so um if you know i i haven't taken a
look but if 1431 should have been there it should have been mailed there and we do send our notices
is at least two weeks in advance. And this was a well-attended meeting. As far as the density
that's being created by this property, that's not the refusal we're seeking. We can actually
build something much larger. And we're choosing not to. This is a CMX4 property. So we're not
taking an RSA5 property and trying to increase density. This is a CMX4 property, which has no
height limitation. We can add as much density as we can put in there. And we're choosing not to.
we're trying to be responsible. And I believe that's why we received unanimous support from
almost 20 people at that community meeting that didn't attend it. All right. Thank you, sir. And
thank you, sir, for calling in. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no further hands, Mr. Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chair Bergman, David
Fecto, City Planning Commission. And I can take a moment if it's okay to clarify. For the letters,
they go to the property owners so if the person was an owner they would have gotten a letter but
if they were a tenant they might not have it could it would be up to the property owner to
give it to the tenant so just to let the gentleman know that if he's if he's actually a tenant he
might not have gotten that letter um so regarding the case uh the comprehensive plan recommends no
change to the commercial mixed use zoning of this location the comprehensive plan also recommends
broad and gerard as a transit related development node so the parking variance is supportable
However, the city's occupied area standards are a basic health and safety standard, and staff has heard no justification for not complying with the occupied area requirement of the code.
So the City Planning Commission recommends granting the parking variance, but denying the variance for occupied area.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, may I just shortly respond to that?
Yeah, so we go street to street on, and let me just share my screen really quickly.
um we go street to street on uh from from gerard avenue to uh flora street
and as you can see here this is our property so having this occupied area of 100 is really
going to do no harm uh to any of the surrounding properties in terms of light in there of having
that 100% because we're actually building to a public street, which, you know, from a safety
perspective, probably makes more sense. If you have a gap in there, especially if it's not fenced
off, may cause like some type of nuisance value for the neighborhood. And again, we're allowed
to have 100% square of lock coverage if we built more than five stories, which we should elect
and not to respect the height of the nearby properties.
So that's, you know, our response to the lot property issue.
Thank you.
MI 2022-006-981-1435 West Rod Avenue.
I vote yes.
Tom Holland, I vote yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Number 12, MI 2022-006-990-1030-40 North 2nd Street, Denver Bazzalo is the attorney for the tenant, 1030 North 2nd Street, for use as a takeout.
for use as a takeout. Okay. Letter of support from Northern Liberties Neighbors Association
Okay, letter of support from.
with one enforceable proviso.
Let me just start my video here. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Could you state your name and
spell please for the court reporter? Sure. Jennifer Bazidlo, B-A-Z-Y-D-L-O.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do could you identify your client and the relationship to the property
sure my client is uh essex squeeze uh is there how they do their business it's 1030 north second
street llc technically and they are the tenant of uh the of one of the units in this property
um our vice chair has just a few questions great good afternoon counsel do you
agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. Have you
emailed all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five
days in advance of this hearing? Yes. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. All right.
let's get to all right so um like i said i'm here today representing essex squeeze
um and i also have on the line uh gonzalo de la cruz who's one of the owners and operators of this
business um they are currently already operating two of these types of stores it's a um smoothie
and a Kybo takeout restaurant. They already have two stores that are successfully operated in New
York City, and they are proposing to open up another location in Liberty's Walk in Northern
Liberty's. So I have submitted a packet, and I'll just go through this briefly. Let me just move
this so I can scroll more easily. We have, it's a referral. It's a special exception. There's one,
And it is just for having an eating and drinking establishment in the North Delaware overlay.
We submitted our project information form.
Here's their lease.
They have a three-year lease on the property.
And you can see our tax clearance.
The letter of support from Northern Liberty's Neighbor Association.
Zoning map will come back to this.
some aerial photographs so you can see where we are.
We're dealing with Liberty's walk across from Piazza.
I'm sure most, if not everyone on the call
is familiar with that area.
Here's our postings.
And you can see this is the outside.
It's just a small unit right here.
It's only about 340 square feet of rentable space.
This is the basement for storage.
This is the interior.
As you can see, it's a very small space.
um here you can see north and south on on second street it liberties walks backs up to
north americans so there you go um this is this is the owners um here's uh the plans i just wanted
to show so while it's 10 30 to 40 north uh second street we're just talking about this one little
unit right here this 101 unit uh we're not talking about a really large operation here you can see
the floor plan with an ordering area and a prep area. And this is the sample menu. We'll come
back. But I just want to go back to the zoning map here. And I'll try to keep this short because
I know we're running late. But this property is zoned CMX3. So it's a commercially zoned property.
It's across from the Piazza. It's on the 2nd Street commercial corridor. And as you know,
in this area we have many restaurants shops stores um this is this is kind of a hub of activity of
that kind of uh business um which is part of the reason that they were so excited to find this
location um so i we believe that this um a smoothie and a kai bowl store takeout store
will be a great fit with the neighborhood um and i just wanted to say yeah so um we'll go to the
menu, just so you can see this. We have juices, we have smoothies, we have bowls,
great nutritious food. As I've already mentioned, they already have two successful locations.
In this location, their proposed hours would be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, and trash is going to be
coordinated with their landlord at Liberty's walk for commercial pickup, and there is no
commercial kitchen here. It's blenders. So there's no stoves, fryers, that sort of thing.
So this is a special exception. In CMX3, a takeout restaurant would usually be allowed by
In CMX 3, a takeout restaurant would usually be allowed by right, but because we are in the North Delaware Avenue overlay, it is required to get a special exception.
The standard is for a special exception, as you know, that it will not cause specific detrimental impacts to the neighborhood beyond what normally might be expected for that use.
So I just kind of want to go over how we're meeting those criteria.
In general, like I said, this is a small takeout store. It's only approximately 341 square feet.
So any impact that this might have just by the nature of the size is going to be smaller than expected when you're dealing with the same kind of use category or perhaps a large restaurant with, you know, 50 or 60 seats.
Also, the location, we expect to have this sort of business on this commercial corridor in a CMX3 zoning, surrounded by other restaurants. In fact, this business is going to be located between a Starbucks and Set No Libs is on the other side of it.
So, you know, we're in between other food service businesses.
And also we have experienced operators who know how to run this type of business, as well as the fact that we are going to be, the Liberty's Walk has extensive criteria for maintenance of property, trash collection, noise, smells, all that sort of stuff, which are enforceable through the lease that will make sure that this business has very little impact.
So why don't you call your client, we'll adopt your testimony.
Sure. Wonderful. I'll just put on the record also that Northern Liberty is Neighbors Association.
Okay. Sure.
Okay. All right. So can I call Mr. De La Cruz? Can you raise your hand?
Mr. Chair, I have a hand raised from a number in 4-0-7-0.
Okay, let's take it. Let's see who it is.
sir or madame star six to unmute hi could could you state your name please and spell for the
gonzalo de la cruz g-o-n-z-a-l-o de la cruz d-e-l-a-c-r-u-z right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do you're the owner of the property
the building all right he's the tenant of the property right go see
sure uh mr de la cruz have you heard my testimony here today and believe it to be truthful and
accurate yes and would you adopt it as your own yes great thank you the questions from the board
no chair
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
I just had two quick questions for Jen.
One, the provisos in the Northern Liberties letter, one of them is hours of operation.
Is your client in agreement with what was recommended there or no?
I believe so, yes.
And then the refusal didn't specify the location.
And I believe based on the tenant, I mean, the, excuse me, based on the lease that the, the, this is specifically in suite LW1-A.
Which is, it's 1022, yeah, there's several designations.
1022 North 2nd, number 101.
In addition, it's also identified in the lease by the tenant suite number that you stated.
So I think either of those or both of those in a proviso is acceptable.
Okay, thank you.
Anyone in the virtual audience?
Yes, sir.
I have Ms. Belinda Harrison with her hand raised.
I have a mic at this time.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
I'm Belinda Harrison.
I believe I'm here for the next meeting for 640 North 40th Street.
It told me we were going to start at 330.
okay uh we'll we're going to get to that um um is there anyone in the virtual audience
for okay no one left no sir okay planning commission thank you chair bergman david
effecto city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed
to use zoning at this location, the applicant has shown that the proposed eating and drinking
The applicant has shown that the proposed eating and drinking establishment will have no detrimental impacts beyond what might be expected.
establishment will have no detrimental impact.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the special exception for eating and drinking establishments.
MI 2022-006-990-1030-40 North 2nd Street.
I vote yes with provisos.
Hours of operation 8A to 8P seven days a week.
use limited to suite
James Snell yes with Proviso
my vote is yes with Proviso
Ishmael Shaheed
my vote is yes with Proviso
you have all your yeses
thank you so much
thank you by the way
okay we're going to go back
to number six I believe
Mr. Chair I believe that was number seven
Mr. Sklaroff could you come back
one please
Mr. Sklaroff
Mr. Sklaroff, take your time.
I think we should be good here.
You've already been sworn in all appropriate questions, so please share your screen.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. Can you just read the case into the record again?
MI-2022-007-303-1637 South 49th Street.
Can you see my screen?
We can.
Good afternoon again, and I appreciate the delay that you've granted me.
As I said earlier, we represent Bartram's Garden and the John Bartram Association.
A little context before we go through the exhibits. The Concrete Cowboys of Southwest Philadelphia, which is wishes to relocate its horses to a stable on the Bartram's Mile located on property owned by the city.