being used or the other the space for the gym is not or sorry not the gym the um the restaurant
proposed restaurant is now not being used for that so that area so so i think i kind of showed
see if i can get it so yeah we're just using the same space as we've been using for the last 10
years so as you can see there's kind of there's this like other space so like they i think would
use that for you know other types of fitness um so i think all the entire kind of internal space
is now just currently being used as a personal service fitness area um i could see it being
possible that they would set up maybe some equipment in there maybe not depending upon
And again, as he said, what customers want, like, do they want, you know,
a big open space to do, I don't, I will.
That's why I was also trying to figure out if Ellen and I was seeing not only
the outside piece, but if they were seeing the,
because seeing expansion in the interior because those other uses were
expiring. So, okay. It doesn't sound like that was.
All right. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning commission.
thank you chairman and good morning david fecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the i2 medium
industrial zoning at this location there is no unique physical condition or circumstance
of this property that would prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code
the appellant has not shown that an expansion of the previously approved personal services
is strictly necessary to continue deriving value from the property the city planning commission
recommends that the board denied a proposed use variance for expansion of personal services
so council what we're gonna i'm gonna take this to executive session next wednesday
that's the fourth and we'll vote at 9 30 a.m i just want to make sure i get get some input from
all the board members okay okay thank you thank you thank you all thank you sir right um number six
MI 2024-006-487-3401, Gerard Avenue.
Autusa Sharasp is the attorney.
Autusa Sharasp, please raise your virtual hand.
She's here.
She's coming up.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Atusa, A-T-U-S-A, Shiras, S as in Sam, H-I-R-A-S as in Sam, B as in boy, and B silent.
Do you swear or affirm the tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is the Philadelphia Water Department, and the city owns.
My client is the Philadelphia Water Department, and the city owns the property.
It's Fairmount Park.
The address is 3401 West Girard Avenue.
All right.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Oh, sure.
Do you agree to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents that are needed and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you.
You can proceed.
Okay, thank you. So, as part of the water department's water revitalization…
Can you show your screen?
Oh, yes.
Show us some photos.
Okay, so just a brief background on this.
So as part of the water department's water revitalization plan to upgrade and expand Philadelphia's core drinking water infrastructure, PWD, which is the water department, is proposing to build a second drinking water pump station at the northeast corner of the intersection of North George's Hill Drive and South George's Hill Drive.
um the building will have six pumps that will deliver up to 21 million gallons of water per day
uh pwd obtained a use for basic utilities and services through city council ordinance bill
which i submitted um so the goal of this new pump station is to provide a redundant water
service source to maintain uninterrupted service during maintenance or rehabilitation activities
So this just ensures that if one of the system fails, there are other parts that still provide safe, reliable drinking water to the neighborhoods in West Philadelphia.
The station will only move drinking water.
There will be no sewage or waste products on site.
And PWD is here today to request a special exception.
There are about five heritage trees, but only three require replacement.
The other two are in poor condition. So of the trees to be removed, 16 are infected and dead trees. There's 130 trees, including three heritage trees. We will be replacing the trees in the remaining space around the facility.
so 47 trees including all 11 flowering trees um and then given the limitation of space which i
will show you in a few minutes um the uh in coordination with ppr we will be paying a
lutein fee in the amount of seventeen thousand seven hundred dollars to a city fund to
plant and maintain trees across the city um all right so this uh exhibit a or one is the
original zoning permit that was
that was provided to L&I
so why don't you if you could go to the photos or plans I think that would be
Sorry, I can't see.
So here were the original plans that were submitted.
I do want to make one note that the revised plans that were submitted include a signage.
The signage was not included in the original plans, so we're not asking for the signage to be included at this time.
We're pursuing that separately.
All right.
So this is the water pump station here.
There are actually other photos that I can show you that might give you a better view.
So this is the site of where the pump station will be constructed.
And then looking at the RCO documents here.
Other page.
There we go.
All right, so this photo, you can see where all the trees are planted, where they will be will be planted, excuse me, the proposed trees and.
Where they will be planted, excuse me, the proposed trees, and you can see the actual pump station where it will be built, and then the proposed trees around it, and then the flowering trees as well.
There's also shrubs.
Is there a pump station there now?
No, there's not.
So this is a brand new?
This is a brand new one.
There is one nearby on the east side, so this is the second one.
Right.
okay and then i have the complete tree list of again like i said there's 47 trees that are going
to be planted 11 include flowering trees um and then the because of space limitations um
we'll be paying a lewin fee
just want to show you one more photo okay and this is another photo um that might be helpful
to locate where the pump station is going to be constructed um and with that i can go through the
other exhibits did you go to the rco meeting i did not attend the rco meeting there were several
of them okay um there were would you like the dates no okay um do we did did you do a mailing
yes so we we did email and um letter mailing yeah but there's no neighbors around there anyway right
you didn't receive a letter from the rco correct uh i have not received a letter okay we we're not
aware of yeah we don't have there's no neighbors necessarily there's the man center yep across
street which we've been working with to conduct various like acoustic studies and such for them
right um right and that's why we had so many rco meetings okay yeah um okay do you have a client
here today i do uh he is remote uh brian sparks yep we've i think we've heard from him before
Mr. Sparks.
Brian Sparks, please, is that the promotion to panelists?
Hello. Hopefully you guys can hear me.
Yes. Good morning, Councilor.
Sir, could you please state your name as Bell for the stenographer?
Yeah, it's Brian Sparks, B-R-I-A-N-S-P-A-R-K-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, Council.
Hi, Mr. Sparks. Did you hear my testimony?
Yes, I did.
And did you see the exhibits?
I did.
Okay. And can you please verify that everything I represented is true and correct?
It was, yes.
And will you adopt my testimony as your own?
I will.
Board, do you have any questions?
Questions from the board.
question for you is that is the and looking at this image is the the building across from there
is that the other pump station uh no i believe that's a part of the man center um it's one of
their secondary stages i believe i think it's called the skyline stage yeah so so there are
water pipes that are already existing in north georgia's and south georgia's little drive
that will connect that's correct yeah and that's why we chose this location because the water
mains that we need to connect to are already exists there okay what's the structure of what
will be the structure of the building um it will yeah yeah it will be masonry uh construction
reinforced masonry with um you know steel um structure masonry infill how what's the security
I will have a yeah we'll have a security fence um uh key card access for PWD personnel only
all right thank you ornamental yeah fencing other questions yes is there a letter of support and
were the centennial district and the man sort of notified of the plans yeah we met with a couple
rcos um throughout this i said i didn't say the rcos i said the centennial districts and the man
like the consortium of cultural institutions that live on this land were they informed
yeah we've been coordinating with the man center um i believe it used to mention that we're doing
some um acoustic studies for them some vibration studies um and also just coordinating um you know
construction sequencing to limit impacts to neighbors um centennial i don't believe that
we've coordinated with them to date okay um one like this is like a very heavily used site like
Okay. One, like this is like a very heavily used site, like right where you guys are sort of this intersection is heavily trafficked when there's any type of public event in this space. And so I just want to know bigger picture, like how is this going to impact the users of this space?
right where
because especially given like what's your construction timeline this is going to be a
major location that people are going to be visiting specifically next year when i'm assuming you'd be
trying to do principal construction so what's the what's the phasing plan and we haven't seen
anything about this building how high it is an example of a similar structure that this would
look like its footprint how many square foot it is how high it is so i feel like it's really hard
to judge this without knowing anything other than like a circle on an aerial map the skyline stage
is huge so even the like scale of your circle is very very big um right and yet you've talked about
tearing down 16 trees which would be like you know a couple of the lines in that circle in scale so
i'm i'm trying i'm having a hard time understanding how what the like final impact of this is going
to be yeah too sad is there rendering in these slides um it looks like appreciating and understanding
pump needs right for water right yeah i think if we flip through this there should be a rendering
of the new facility um maybe prior to this um while you do that uh is there uh a space for
parking for employer employees and if so is that enclosed as well yeah we again working with the
man center they have um some labor um like more like vendors and stuff that that's a good one if
you want to go back to that previous yeah right yes that shows the rendering to the right there
um to answer your question about building size is approximately 9 000 square feet
and then it's a single story but that story is taller than a typical building to allow for
you know overhead crane to be able to traverse the floor um we have to lift you know pretty
big pieces of equipment up so we need the head height to be able to to accommodate that um but
that's that's what we're looking at you know right there on the side of the screen um to go back to
the parking space for man center um we're going to provide them um i believe it's around 50 spots
during construction and then post-construction they'll have more than that um approximately
100 you know give or take you know a dozen here or there but that's kind of what they needed for
their vendors and labor-related workers to be able to park and work the events.
And then how long is construction anticipated to occur?
It's approximately three years.
I think we had four years on here, but three to four years, yeah.
So for four years, the Mann Center would have, what, 50% reduced parking?
right which seems like they are able to accommodate okay right
and then when would this commence um so we're going to include restrictions in the contract
documents to not allow the contractor to start before november of um 25 or i guess it would be
more like 26 but basically their events go from may to october can you go back to that picture
that you just had up yeah that that was those spots yeah but go ahead right oh yeah and then
the image that atusa just had up i think that was the temporary spot so we're accommodating
is that if you if you go back up atusa one more uh maybe down sorry yeah i didn't know which way
you're flipping yeah there you go yep yeah so that'd be during construction and then we probably
I have a slide after this for post-construction parking.
Yeah, there you go.
That's what we're still going to provide to them for their event staff.
And then what's the closest building?
I mean, there's a lot of structures in this section of the park.
I know typically when Water Department does structures that they try to match sort of the character of either the existing architecture or the neighborhood,
this one doesn't necessarily seem like it was trying to do that.
so I guess just trying to get a sense of like how does this relate if I'm on the ground all
of these are aerial images like what's the closest relationship that I would see to a physical
building that skyline stage is a across um South George's Hill from us um again not really like a
a building um that's yeah I wouldn't consider that a building right yeah kind of building
I know there's a historic house over there I know you've got the carousel house like there's a lot
of buildings on this site. So I guess I'm trying to understand with