But we were just here for the curb cut.
That's the only issue that's here.
So, you know, if it we felt that that was a good enough turnout and that the concerns
weren't really related to that.
Mitchell, of the 40 or so people who attended the meeting, what was the vote count?
I think that was like two in favor and 12 opposed, but I don't know that they gave us any indication of what the opposition was for.
Again, most of the conversation was around affordability and diversity and inclusion.
Not that people felt like the curb cut was really necessary.
um and i think and correct me if i'm wrong earlier i said we would hold this for discussion
so that you would have uh you rachel would have some time to speak to max and the councilwoman
between now and next wednesday yeah i mean my com my question would just be to the board in
the event that they still want to move forward with another meeting um and if the community was
wanted a curb cut here we still the city still doesn't have authority to put a curb cut there
so we're just then proposing continuing time for information which I'm more than happy to do if
continuing time for information, which I'm more than happy to do if that can be arranged within
two weeks. But, you know, again, as you can understand, it's a little bit of a difficult
case given the refusal. Understood. And even if the city was allowed to give you a curb cut,
I don't think they would. I don't think they would. And I don't think the neighbors would
want it either, to be honest with you. You know, it takes valuable on-street parking away in this
case. Yep. Very congested area. All right. Yes. We do have someone who wishes to testify on behalf
of this case. Yep. Larissa, your mic has to be unmuted, but you're available to speak.
Hi there. I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes. Please state your name and address for the record.
Sure. Larissa Magano, L-A-R-I-S-S-A-M-O-G-A-N-O. I'm at 5234 Webster Street.
Thank you, Marissa. And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
So I am – hi, Rachel and Travis and everybody.
Hi there. I am the president of Cobb's Creek Neighbors, who was the RCO responsible for helping to convene this meeting.
um and uh just want to reinforce um a couple things and also i had a question that i posed
in the q a which didn't come up in our meeting the other day so it's kind of a an additional
statement here but um for one thing uh we really only had about 29 people in attendance that
weren't you know hosts or our zoning committee or non-voting people um i think somebody said 40
earlier so i just wanted to clarify there and um it's you know true most of the conversation was
about affordability and things that are outside of the scope of zoning anyway. However, we have
also been getting a lot of direct messages and emails and calls saying that a lot of folks didn't
get the notice until after the meeting. That's in the 250-foot radius. It was promoted on Facebook
and on our social media and through the different RCOs in the community. And Rachel and Travis
pre-recorded a presentation for us, which was very helpful. But again, while in the past,
maybe sending out the notices hasn't yielded a great turnout, we're dealing with a mostly aging
community and a lot of folks that are going to be having a little bit of a hard time with new
technology because we're under different circumstances right now. So the reason for
asking for the continuance, you know, we do think that we would actually be able to get more people
out we've actually had some folks volunteer to distribute flyers which i know shouldn't necessarily
be our responsibility um but there are people that would like to participate and you know while they
may not understand the process as much as we at all would all hope um you know we still want to
be able to give more more folks the opportunity to um at least weigh in and see see what the plans
are even a lot of folks haven't actually seen the plans um so that's that but my question was
actually about and i don't know if this is a zoning question or not um but how would parking
on the side of the street impact the use and safety of the newly installed bike lane because
while there is a curb cut on the other side for the strip mall um the bike lane is only on this
side of the street the south side of the street where the proposal is for and i'm curious if there
are other instances of you know middle of the block curb cuts and how if any traffic studies
have been done about that to see if that's i guess justified or safe or warranted well i mean
speaking from experience where i live on 11th street there are curb cuts and there are bike
lanes uh that recently have been established uh there's lanes going north and south on 11th
uh my my guess is and planning commission will speak to this that if if it was within the city's
jurisdiction i suspect the planning commission would be opposed to a curb cut there i don't know
if that answers your question but yes there are places where there are many places where there
are bike lanes and you have curb cuts but are there are there state roads and main thoroughfares
with i mean well i'm not sure high rate of traffic as an i don't know is as j does anyone know if
jfk boulevard is a state route if it is there are curb cuts there i'm sure there are broad street
some on lehigh avenue but again that's a lot larger of a passenger and a lot of the curb cuts
are on the side streets of tulip and um trenton and stuff not directly or they're exist they've
been existing for a long long periods of time yeah and i don't think i don't think there's
going to be a an instance just like walnut street you know which is arterial from one side of the
city to the other with yeah decent rates of traffic but that i mean parking would well i'm
sure affect that as much too even on street parking washington avenue is having going to
Washington Avenue is having going to have the same issues.
have the same issues there are numerous
There are numerous curb cuts existing. In fact, we're going to have a,
we had a case last week, but we're going to have numerous curb cuts.
There's lots of residential development and there are bike lanes.
I mean, it's the, so it's happening in many areas of the city.
Ms. Morgano, I'm not dismissing your, your statement.
Do you believe that you'll be,
you would be able to get that many more participants?
and the reason i say and i don't mean to be disrespectful we recognized early on this board
and and staff that it was always going to be a challenge to do these virtual hearings because
many people do not have uh the the capability uh to be able to participate uh for one or another
so uh you know i mean i i can appreciate that i know um we've we've even had a continuance before
and you know again didn't get as many people out i think when when it's been a um large enough
project uh when people have enough advance notice i mean just the fact that folks have been calling
rachel and i both this week um i think indicates that there's obviously more interest than they
were given the opportunity to um respond to so i'm you know mostly asking because the extenuating
circumstances of covet on top of everything else um don't really make this a something that i think
you can point to previous examples really you know similarly too and as I said we also have
you know even just since then found some folks who would like to volunteer to get more people
you know to attend virtually and I managed all of the you know tech for the call the other day we
did have quite a few people show up but I think it was mentioned that the notices weren't sent
out until Friday and we also have the other extenuating circumstance of some mail actually
being delayed at this point too, which I guess is why some neighbor, you know, a couple of
neighbors received it and a couple didn't. So again, I'm using all of that as an example of
this is not typical. Can I just ask, do you think that the conversation would be any different?
Because I appreciate you being honest in that it was mostly around affordability and diversity
inclusion. It wasn't necessarily about the curb cut or even the features of the project. So my
concern again would be to hold this off to have another meeting where we talked about you know
those those topics and like again said I don't want to be and consider those are very important
it just um we're only here for one refusal for a curb cut that again we have this hardship of
trying to obtain so that would just I would just want to know maybe your thoughts on that
uh I mean my I'm going to be pretty authentic and tell you you know that our time is valuable
in different ways, obviously. And so, you know, part of our problem, of course, is that there is
a lot of, for lack of a better word, ignorance around the process in general. So even though
the specific request, that, you know, the specific refusal is not really something,
how do I put this? I know that the project is by right one way or the other, and the refusal is
just for the curb cut um but it's a i'm asking almost like for a personal uh request here that
we allow people to be involved in a process even if they don't quite understand it because we're
trying to get people to understand it more do you think we could get something together in the next
two weeks so that we could at least provide something to the board like i'm not opposed
to meeting again as long as like we're under the same terms of like yeah yeah i think that's fine
because the other thing is yeah the other you know part of the reason I did it like this as a
webinar instead of a meeting was because we didn't want a cacophony of people that don't understand
the process to dominate the whole thing I mean some of it is education really which I know is
a lot to ask you for the continuance but this is going to be coming up a lot more and we're going
to see each other probably a lot more so why can't why why couldn't we not do this rather than
the board as i think i suggested earlier about holding this for a discussion and voting on it
next wednesday we do it the following week is that a we can do that tanya as opposed we can
hold it for two weeks yes works for us right sharon yes the only um condition being that
if the if anything new is submitted there will have to be another hearing
again because it's only the curb cut and i respect miss morgana what you're what you know
you're asking us but i'd hate to see a project like this get held up for many more months
yeah i don't think months i mean it's fresh in people's minds but no but the scheduling
we don't know when the continuance date could be out a month two months from now
i mean we just can't continue them uh there's a schedule which miss miss sunkins can speak to
I don't know what the next continuance date is.
Well, if it would have to be continued, I would work with Rachel for a date.
If it would have to be continued, I would work with Rachel for a date that works for her schedule.
Yeah, I mean, I would hate to have this continued, truthfully.
I would rather have it voted on and held for another RCO letter than have to continue something.
So, Ms. Morgana, without putting too much pressure on you, if the board decides to take this under discussion, rather than vote it out next Wednesday, the 29th, we would hold the vote until Wednesday, August 5th.
that gives you two weeks um i mean that's better than something happening today
we said that earlier we're going to do a week but now right uh two weeks would be great especially
you know if we are i don't know if we're relying on mail again or not but that would give i i would
hope not because of the we spent a significant time trying to get that out and then we sent out
169 and if that didn't work i don't want to come back and have that so if you guys are willing to
flyer i'm willing to provide you with any information um you know any of the plans and
anything you need to to be successful in doing that so the two of you can can discuss that work
the details out okay thank you all right can i just raise a point of information chair or just
just just ask a quick question yes um if after this meeting there are neighbors who you know are
in the 250 foot vicinity and if they have concerns will they be willing to bring those forth on the
5th before this board i guess only if they pertain to
parking right yes only if it pertains to the parking correct
thanks okay all right thank you all uh i took a little bit of time but i think
we're in a place where we can all uh planning commission would like to go on
record on this i'm getting ready questions from the
board planning commission yes as the board
knows the standing policy of the city planning commission is not to
support front-loaded parking negatively affecting
functional street safety therefore in this particular case we
support the granting of the barriers thank you
calendar number three nine eight two eight five two three zero
walnut street uh this will be held this matter will be held for discussion
in our executive session on wednesday morning
august the 5th can i just wear my uh have my client affirm my testimony oh i'm sorry yeah
please do travis um have you heard my testimony and do you adopt it as your own
yes and yes thank you thank you thank you all thank you miss thank you appreciate it thank
you thank you thank you thank you mr folks what was it okay calendar number three nine
309 1505
Tioga Street
the eternal
the attorney happens to be
the eternal Rachel Pritzker
is that my new nickname
I kind of like that
I know gosh
do you agree to waive the reading of this refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy
name and address
spell your name for the stenographer
Rachel Pritzker
R-A-C-H-A-E-L
Pritzker P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R
Pritzker Law Group 1635 Market Suite 1600 Philadelphia PA 19103 and I am the attorney
for the owners who should be here with me today Rahat Kamal and Justin John are they here
Rachel you have to be sworn and you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth
Yes. And there is in this case also an RCO issue that I believe Rachel is going to address first
and that the planning commission has a position on. Yes. So we met with, but this, this was filed
back in November of 2019. We did meet with the RCO, which was the Tioga, it was Tioga United,
I believe um we did the RCO meeting and um they said that because we didn't have five neighbors
there there was like a there's a council policy now in that district if you don't have five
neighbors directly neighbors there who are in support of the project that you can't take a vote
I think there was also some uh concerns uh and confusion uh on the process so we had agreed
originally to come back and meet with them at their request and this and with the council office
as to why we continued this originally.
They then, we weren't able to get in contact
with anybody for months.
I submitted documentation of our outreach
to both the RCO and the council office.
The council office just got back to me this morning
saying that they don't have a new president yet,
but that everything was going
through the council office for right now.
We have letters of support from the near neighbors.
So I don't believe that we're in violation
don't believe that we're in violation of any of the procedural requirements or that there really
of any of the procedural requirements.
is opposition to this case. So we'd like to move forward and provide that testimony and evidence.
And I don't know that the council office is in disagreement with that either.
I have Charles Richardson. Was someone from the planning commission going to speak to this as well?
So we would like to note that the filing for this was before the city shut down and the emergency regulations do not apply for the RCO meetings.