Thank you. And, Lakeisha, we're ready, correct?
No, we're going to have to wait three minutes.
That's right. Sorry, I got ahead of myself again.
Yeah, I do.
Sorry, Lakeisha.
You're fine.
Thank you.
like you can start, Chair. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Frank DiCicco. I'm the Chair
of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. I'll be participating in today's hearing along with
our Vice Chair, Ms. Carol Tenere, Board Secretary, Confessor Plaza, and Board Members, Mr. Thomas
Holloman and Mr. James Snell. Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy, and Board Attorney, Ms. Sharon
Saleta, are also in attendance. For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual
hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you can expect. First, we will be administering
oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony. Second, we'd like to advise everyone
that this proceeding is being recorded, and that by participating, you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded, and that the recording will be available to the public on the web or otherwise.
Third, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star 9 and then star 6 to unmute yourself.
I'll repeat, for anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise your hand by hitting star 9 and then star 6 to unmute yourself.
Finally, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
I will repeat, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue.
And I would also like to remind everyone, please do not attempt to testify in the chat.
Any comments should be directed to our board administrator, Ms. Lakeisha Dandy.
With that, I will read off a list of requests for continuances or withdrawals on the 930 list.
Case number one, MI 2020-003074.
1200 Intrepid Avenue is being withdrawn.
Number eight on our list, MI 2020-0030455513 Pemberton Street is continued. MI 2020-003043
5423 Larchwood Avenue is being continued. If anyone disagrees with those cases that either
been withdrawn or continued uh in error please raise your hand at this time only if you disagree
with the cases that have just been read to be continued or withdrawn raise your hand at this
time we have no handshare thank you is there anyone who would like to request a withdrawal
or continuance for the 9 30 hearing list if so please raise your hand at this time
we have mr sloan folks you mr folks good morning good morning chairman de chico and the zba board
my name is sloan folks s-l-o-a-n-e f as in fire o-l-k-s office of councilman maria quiona
sanchez from 508 city hall you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but
the truth? I do, sir. Thank you. Please proceed. I would like to request continuance on case number
seven, MI-2020-001263, 3901 North Reese Street. As of this morning, we still have no record of
um as of uh this morning we still have no record of there being a meeting with the uh
there being a meeting with the
our coordinating rco um okay let me check sharon we have no exhibits no exhibits and this is the
second listing okay uh mi2020-001263-3901 north reese street my vote is to dismiss dismiss
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Dismissed.
Hey, Mr. Folks.
Thank you, Chairman Chico.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals on the 930 list?
Please raise your hand.
We have Ms. Hillary.
Ms. Hillary, you can unmute yourself.
Good morning, Ms. Emerson.
Please identify yourself and I'll square you in.
good morning mr chair um members of the board hillary emerson on behalf of councilwoman cheryl
parker another witness i'll swear i'll tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do um i'm here on number 10 on the list 71 35 rising sun avenue um i i attempted
to reach out to the applicant that heard from her early on um and case was continued back in
december and then there were a couple of uh permits by right permits issued for the property
in her name so i wasn't sure if she was still continuing with her request for the zoning
um hearing or not but i have not heard back from her and i just wanted to see if
she was on on the rco meeting has not occurred to my knowledge
did we get any exhibits no exhibits no exhibits it's previously been listed
yes mi 2020 that's zero zero one nine four four seven one three five rising sun avenue my vote
is to dismiss dismiss dismiss dismiss dismiss i'm sorry can we just make sure that that person
it's not here oh sorry about it is there anyone here anyone here for seven three seven one three
five rising sun avenue thank you time
mr daniel are you here for that case
no i'm not
okay no hands all right thank you anyone again if there's anyone who's requesting a continuance
or withdrawal for the 9 30 list please raise your hand thank you mr chair
mr daniel can i mute yourself and speak to a continuance
good morning sir please identify yourself for the record first last name and spell your last name
Daniel P. McElhatton, MC, capital E-L-H-A-T-T-O-N.
I'm an attorney, 2000 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
And you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
I do, sir.
Thank you, Dan. Please proceed.
I submitted to the council and to the administrator an email yesterday.
My client, who is a protestant, this is on 428 West Thompson Street.
it's at the end of today's 9 30 list we've had two extensive hearings on it um the end of last
week my client received an email from the owner of the property uh indicating they were going to
proceed by right and that they didn't want to put along the process i'm just trying to excuse me
i'm sorry can i just ask that you call um leo mulvihill attorney leo mulvihill
and promote him as well i believe um he may have a response to that mr mulvihill are you available
i am all right please identify yourself i'll swear you win certainly this is leo mulvihill
amazon michael ul v as in victor i h i l l address one four four one east oxford o x
f as in frank o-r-d street philadelphia 19125 thank you swear in the front it's all the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth thank you thank you please proceed good morning members of
the board mr mackleheadon's representation is correct i've had extensive discussions with my
client and at the time this is going to be a withdrawal by the applicant to proceed by right
with a different design. Okay, Mr. McElhatton, this case is being withdrawn. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Mulvihill. Thank you. So MI 2020-002-446-428-30 West Thompson Street is withdrawn.
428-30 West Thompson Street is withdrawn. Any other requests?
We have a Mr. Goodman. Mr. Goodman, you can unmute yourself.
Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Goodman. Please identify yourself and I'll swear you in.
Thank you. Andrew Goodman, A-N-D-R-E-W-G-O-O-D-M-A-N, here representing the Office of
third district council member, Jamie Gaudier.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Here to request a continuance for what I believe is
agenda item number 11 on your agendas.
MI 2020-003087-800 South 60th Street.
Our office has no record of an RCO meeting taking place.
Thank you.
And Sharon, we don't have any exhibits either, correct?
No exhibits. It's the first listing.
And there was no RCO meeting, Mr. Goodman?
Not to our knowledge, no.
This could be a dismissal, couldn't it?
Usually it's the first listing. It would be a continuance.
Okay. All right. MI 2020-003-087, 800 South 60th Street.
that 6-0 street is continued if you'd like you can make this a must be heard sorry continued
must be heard thank you you're welcome i just wanted to make sure we to ensure that there was
no one here for that as the applicant is there anyone here for 800 north i'm sorry 800 south
60th street aside from mr goodman no hands chair thank you anyone else requesting a
continuance or withdrawal for the 9 30 list no more hands chair okay uh that leads us to the
add-ons. Oh, I'm sorry. We have a Ms. Blunt. Ms. Blunt? Ms. Catherine. Good morning, everyone. I'm
calling regarding 5513 Pemberton. Will that continue? Yes, one second, ma'am. Please identify
yourself for the record. Yes, my name is Catherine Blunt. I am the co-chair of the 46th Ward RCO.
And your last name is, how do you spell your last name?
Yes, B-L-U-N-T.
Do you swear in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do swear.
Thank you.
And what you're calling about 5513 Pemberton Street?
That case is continued.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, ma'am.
Have a good day.
You do likewise.
Any other requests?
no more handshare okay thank you we'll go to the add-on list mi2020-002477
1624 north 26th street my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no
By 2020, that's 0003401530 West Champulse Avenue. There's a request for reconsideration.
There's also a letter from Councilwoman Bass in support of a reconsideration. So my vote is yes
to reconsideration and rehearing. Yes to reconsideration and rehearing. Yes to reconsideration
and re-hearing. Yes to reconsideration and re-hearing. Yes to reconsideration and re-hearing.
Thank you. Hold on, Thompson is done. Sharon, do we now go to, we hear the
case for 3948-50 West Gerrard, correct? That's correct.
Okay, so we'll hear a testimony on MI 2020-002-482-3948-50 West Girard Avenue.
I understand there's some revised plans, but whoever's presenting, please raise your hand now.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Adam Lieber of Blancroam.
I'm glad you're swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
i do mr chairman please proceed thank you adam laver of blank rome one logan square
on behalf of david goldstein the owner of 3948-50 west gerrard avenue and 3962 west gerrard avenue
and 39 62 west gerrard avenue members of the board a full hearing in this single issue special
members of
exception takeout use case was held on february 17th of this year at that time revised proviso
plans were presented which took into consideration certain community feedback that had been shared
in an initial community meeting. At the February hearing, representatives of Centennial Parkside
Community Development Corporation, the coordinating RCO in this matter, appeared and expressed
opposition, unfortunately, to the proposed takeout restaurant with accessory drive-thru.
At the hearing in February, support from individual neighbors was also entered into the record.
The board permitted us to return to the RCO and the community in an effort at further
dialogue, which we appreciated.
A virtual community meeting was held on Thursday evening, March the 4th.
At the meeting, Centennial Parkside CDC Zoning Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Gomez turned
the floor over to Sergeant Jihad Ali.
Sergeant Ali ran the meeting.
Concerns were raised at the meeting about, quote, bringing different types of people into the neighborhood, end quote.
Regrettably, the RCO's position was conveyed to me, and I appreciated the frankness, that there's a fundamental opposition to the proposed use before the board.
And so where we had hoped to engage in some dialogue about potential changes that could be made to serve everyone's interests, that wasn't a possibility.
And we respect that.
Girard Avenue, as the board knows, is a major arterial roadway.
In some ways, it's an east-west version of our north-south Broad Street.
And a request was made at the community meeting from my client, David, who's with us today to engage a traffic study to offer a traffic engineer to offer professional guidance and possibly recommendations concerning the subject location at 40th and Gerrard Avenue.
Gerrard Avenue is a significant right of way with traffic challenges with or without the proposed use.
We engaged Kevin Savage, a registered professional engineer with Dynamic Traffic, who worked expeditiously to perform a full traffic study at this location, resulting in the issuance of a transportation impact assessment and recommendations, which became available yesterday, which we've shared with the board.
We are prepared to share these findings with the board and the community at this time.
Before moving to that I'd like to screen share briefly however and just go
over some background. Here you see where the hand sign is the subject property at
40th and Girard. You also can see four lanes of traffic on Girard with the
trolley at the center. You see the School of the Futures large campus across the
Street which houses the school and we also learned that the community meeting
houses church worship services at other times here to the right of our site where
hopefully you can see the hand is a former synagogue which is actually
interesting a bit of L&I history it's still registered as a synagogue use of
course that carries through to the church that occupies it now the revival center the revival
center also earns some owns some vacant land next to the church and there's vacant land along this
entire block unfortunately pockets of vacant land across 40th street from our subject property at
the corner, you'll see in a moment, is a cell phone store, a nightclub, and a Chinese takeout
restaurant. Here are some additional photographs. And here you see the Chinese takeout restaurant,
the nightclub, and I said a cell phone. It's a cell phone and dollar plus store. And here
in the background is our subject property. Of course, we're here before the board for
special exception relief. It should be noted that Golden Dragon and Encore are non-conforming
and that they would require special exception relief as well. Here is the subject property
in its former use. It was an eat-in and take-out restaurant, Spiro's Corner Restaurant,
It was a eat-in and take-out restaurant, Spiro's Corner Restaurant, beloved by some in the community.
And you'll see the signage of that restaurant showed delivery, pickup, and clearly it was in the style of the diner.
Here is our notice of referral just to refresh the board's recollection.
The proposed take-out restaurant is a special exception to the ZBA, one referral.
And the board previously saw, and these were entered into the record, the proposed upgrading of David's property, nine apartments above which are permitted by right.
The main corner section of the property is a larger commercial space for uses as permitted in the district.
We've had difficulty leasing that space as we have for the smaller proposed takeout as well.
A couple more images, and here you see the proposed revised plan that had been shared
with the board at the last hearing.
Here we are, not at our site, but just showing you 4430 North Broad Street, a similar type
of roadway with a takeout and drive-through use.
We're not proposing a Taco Bell. This is illustrative only. And here we are moving to actually Broad and Girard. So another section of Girard that shows a takeout use with much wider curb cuts than what we are proposing, as previously mentioned to the board.
This is across the street at Broad and Girard, again, just illustrative.
And here, for the record, is a support letter from Mr. James Brown, whose work prevents him from attending the hearing today.
But he mentions, and this was submitted for the record, that AVIT's tone of communication and partnership with a predominantly African American community are appreciated.
And he notes the job creation possibilities by this proposed use.
at this point in time i would like to call mr savage our traffic planning engineer to speak
to the transportation impact assessment that he performed in this case mr savage if you would
please raise your virtual hand so that you may be sworn in
Mr. Kevin is available.
Hi, yes. Can you hear me?
Yes. Please identify yourself for the record.
First and last name. Spell your last name for the record.
Kevin Savage. Last name is S-A-V-A-G-E.
We're going to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Thank you, Mr. Laver.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Savage, for being with us today.
Sir, you are a licensed engineer in the state of Pennsylvania, is that correct?
Yes, that's correct.
And did you prepare a transportation impact assessment at the subject property?
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
I'd like to turn your attention, if I may, to page 13 of your transportation impact assessment,
which has been submitted to the board, and specifically to your conclusion.
Would you be kind enough to read the first sentence of your conclusion to the board?
Sure. Based upon our traffic impact study as detailed in the body of this report,
it is the professional opinion of dynamic traffic llc that the adjacent street system of the city
of philadelphia and penn dot will not experience any significant degradation and operating is there
an excuse the interruption is there an exhibit with that yes there is please bring it up please
sure one moment
I don't mean to make you, uh, give you motion sickness, I'm just
moving to the page
that Kevin was reading from.
Please reread that sentence, if you would, Mr. Savick.
Please reread
that sentence if you would, Mr. Savick.
Sure. It is the professional opinion of Dynamic Traffic LLC that the adjacent street system of the city of Philadelphia and PennDOT will not experience any significant degradation in operating conditions with the construction of the project.
Thank you, sir. And prior to the issue...
Excuse me, counselor. Is there a diagram for the site traffic flow?
excuse me yes mr holliman one moment
mr savage um mr holliman a member of the board has asked
be pointed to a diagram. Could you please suggest the page in your report that would be helpful?
Yes, it should be figure five, which I believe is five pages
further along than your cursor is right now. Thank you. Mr. Holloman, I'm moving forward in the
report here. Here we are to figure five site-federated scripts. It may be helpful at this
point in time for mr savage to just provide a brief overview regarding uh his report and what
he observed at the site and then i'll follow up with some specific questions enlarge that a little
bit please yes thank you sure please proceed mr savage thanks mr letter so as part of our
transportation impact assessment, we had a chance to review the adjacent roadway network and the
proposed layout of the site. And as part of that transportation impact assessment, we looked at
traffic data at the adjacent signalized intersection and along the adjacent roadways.
And from that, we were able to develop what we call no-build conditions. So those are,
current conditions without the construction of the project.
From there, we surcharged our site-generated traffic onto the adjacent roadway network
and, again, performed an analysis to get what's called our build conditions.
And then from there, we were able to compare the no-build conditions without the project
to the build conditions with the project.
and we found that there's little to no change in operational conditions at the signalized
intersection and on the surrounding roadways. The site driveways operate with good levels of service
and also as part of that transportation impact assessment, we provided three specific
recommendations for incorporation with the project. Please pause for a moment, I'm going to bring
those up so that the board can see them. Sure. Please proceed. There you go. Go right ahead,
Mr. Savage. Sure. So the first recommendation is to restrict the egress driveway along West
Deroid Avenue to a right turn egress only movement. So this would not allow for left
turns out. Secondly, we recommend installing an audio or visual warning device at the egress
driveway to warn pedestrians of exiting vehicles. And third, we recommend installing pedestrian
push buttons at the adjacent signalized intersection and also working with the streets department to
upgrade or update the pedestrian timings to provide adequate walk and flashing don't walk
times at that intersection. Thank you, Mr. Savage. And Mr. Chairman, members of the board,
when Mr. Savage shared his initial findings with David and with me, which actually came to the
conclusion that this site was suitable for the use, David and I said to him, what would you
recommend above and beyond this analysis to really improve the existing situation
and future situation at this site and in this neighborhood. And at our request, Mr. Savage
provided these recommendations, which you see before you. And we would ask the board
If it is inclined to grant requested relief, special exception relief for the proposed takeout use, that these be considered provisos to any zone.
that these be considered provisos to any zoning board of adjustment relief.
Mr. Savage, I think it would be helpful for the board just to underscore the type of usage
that this site might see in terms of in and out traffic.
Could you speak to that for a moment?
So based on the size of the takeout restaurant, especially being the small size,
we anticipate uh approximately uh 25 entering and 25 exiting vehicles during the morning peak hour
and a little bit less about 20 entering and 20 exiting during the evening peak hour so that
equates to about one vehicle in or one vehicle out about every two to three minutes thank you very
much sir thank thank you counselor yes mr holliman um we we of course have mr savage available for
further questions. We also have Mr. Chandler and members of the board, Veronica Blum, the commercial
real estate broker who had worked unsuccessfully to market both of the commercial spaces at this
site. She's prepared to testify if the board wishes to hear from her. And in addition to Ms. Blum,
we have a couple near neighbors who would like to speak in support of the project.
But I defer to the board regarding timing and the additional testimony desired.
Why don't we bring your supporting witnesses, the near neighbors, and get them on the record?
Very good.
I would like to call then Ms. Latia Jones of 3962 West Girard Avenue.
Ms. Jones, would you kindly raise your virtual hands
so that your opinion as a near neighbor
may be recognized by the board?
Ma'am, identify yourself, name and address.
I don't see no hands, Chair.
Anyone else, Mr. Laver?
Well, I'd be happy to.
Mr. Charles Simmons of 4216 Parkside Avenue.
Sir, if you're with us, would you kindly raise your virtual hand?
I see Mr. Simmons is on mute.
Mr. Simmons, would you kindly unmute, if possible,
so that the chairman may ask you a question and swear you in?
it seems like we're having some technical difficulties so as an officer of the court
Mr. Labor will agree that Mr. Simmons and Ms. Jones would be testifying in support of your
application yes Mr. Chairman and that is in addition to the letters of support that have
been submitted by others who are unable to join us I regret that these individuals due to
technology are not able to participate, but I thank you for allowing me to put that into the
record. And again, we have Veronica Blum only if the board wishes the commercial real estate
broker. I don't think we need that just yet. I'll leave that up to the board. I'm going to ask the
board if they have any questions. No. No. Okay. With that, is there anyone else who would like
to testify? If so, please raise your hand. Hi, I had inadvertently raised my hand earlier.
I apologize. Please identify yourself, spell your first and last name and provide us with
your address. Certainly. My name is Alexandra McFadden. It's A-L-E-X-A-N-D-R-A, McFadden,
capital m c f as in foxtrot a d d e n i'm the president of centennial parkside community
development corporation and i'm also a neighbor i live in east parkside and i've lived here uh
for the better part of the last 30 mumble mumble years okay you swear in the firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed miss mcfadden um so i
submitted my letter of a protest against this property. I emailed it. I'm not sure which date.
So I hope that you've received it. And I'm speaking on behalf of Centennial Parkside.
But first, I want to say that we've been working with Mr. Goldstein for the last three years,
as of April, regarding this property and how to get tenants into it. And one of the challenges that
we found with his initial and subsequent market rate, his requests for prices are drastically
there's requests for prices, the prices are drastically higher, I think maybe by $8 to $10
higher.
per square foot higher than what the market actually will bear, if you look at similar
locations in West Parkside, et cetera. But I want to focus my testimony on three particular issues.
I recognize that there was a traffic study done, which we have, of course, not seen since I believe
the date that it was completed was the 22nd or 23rd. And one of the things that our last meeting
that we said that we would love to see a traffic study, because according to the marketing that
Mr. Goldstein has been doing, it says that the traffic count is 19,000 cars per day.
This also does not account for... Pardon me. I just, an objection for the record. No disrespect to
McTadden just for the record must have generated those statements. I couldn't hear everything you
said Mr. Laver, but I don't remember hearing it. You said 19,000 cars a day? Yes, on the real estate
on the real estate, what do you call it, the listing, it says the traffic count is 19,000.
That's how many cars you're saying past this intersection? Yes, that's what that's according to
what Mr. Goldstein has been putting his his his real estate agent at least has been has been
advertising. Yeah um and um so there are three things that we are um most that we most that
we're most concerned about um the first is substantial increase in congestion um so that
intersection is really five it's a it's three streets so it's uh 40th street a major artery
Girard Avenue, a snow emergency route, and Parkside Avenue, another major artery. And they
all kind of combine into one unholy union right there. And additionally, there is a school across
the street, the School of the Future, and they have about 500 kids there. And we have across
the street, I want to object to something Mr. Labor said, it is not a dollar plus. It is in
fact an empty building and has been vacant for many years. And Mr. Goldstein owns that building
as well. So I'm surprised that he doesn't know that it's vacant. And one of the, and then there
is the, the, the old Spiro's location. It is a high pedestrian location, which is according to
Vision Zero, a high injury network street. We've had two pedestrians hit by cars in the last three
years. I believe there were no fatalities, but it is a very dangerous intersection, especially
with Parkside Avenue, the traffic turns left. There are trolleys, there are buses, there are two bus
routes that go across that intersection, and again, the 19,000 cars, which is, it's a weird
situation because during the year, the school year, for instance, it's not necessarily
high traffic during the middle portion of the day, but when it's summertime and the
the zoo, the police church museum, the park,