This is a pretty straightforward application.
what we plan to do is remove two existing large signage structures on Walnut Street in front of
the Annenberg Center. These are old-fashioned ones where you open up the door and put a poster
inside. We propose to remove those and replace them with two illuminated signs, one on 37th
street walkway one on walmart street and one flat wall illuminated sign on 37th street walkway we
got five use refusals because digital signs are not permitted in the spins district and one
use refusal because it is within 200 feet of an intersection even though this intersection
is a private street 37th street walkway on the south side of walmart um i think the best thing
is with me, I have Seth Cohen from VSBA Architects, who's the project architect, along with Matt
Yoder and Chloe Rison. I think Seth could just go through some visuals to show you what the
proposal is and Chloe could make a brief statement about why this is important to the SACS program
for Arts Innovation and the Annenberg Center. So if Seth Cohen is here,
I think you need to raise your hand.
Yes, he's available to speak.
Yes, can you hear me okay?
Can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name?
Yes, my name is Seth Cohen, C-O-H-E-N. I'm a principal at VSBA Architects and Planners.
The address is 116 Schur's Lane.
The address is 116 Schur's Lane.
Philadelphia.
Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
You may proceed.
Great.
Can I share my screen?
Okay, are you able to see the images?
Not yet.
One second, he's coming back in as a panelist.
Okay, can you see it now?
excuse me um you could try stop sharing and then resharing actually it was just slow but it looks
like it's coming up right now there it is okay wonderful um again my name is Seth Cohen I will
try to be brief uh as Ira mentioned this is a pretty straightforward proposal we are proposing
to remove two existing illuminated three-sided kiosks, which are located on Walnut Street.
That's location number one, and we are replacing it with one double-sided animated
illuminated digital kiosk. It's a relatively modest size. It's a 55-inch monitor-oriented
portrait or vertically with both sides. Location number two, which you can see with my mouse here,
is located on 37th Street, again a private street set back significantly from Walnut Street.
That also is a double-sided kiosk. And then finally location three, you can see this yellow star,
not even at all visible from the street is a single-sided digital monitor mounted to the
masonry wall. I should add that the Annenberg Center is a relatively solid, except for this
one image, masonry building with not much connectivity to the street and to the patrons
and pedestrians and one of the goals of this new signage is to engage those patrons and those
pedestrians for various current and upcoming events that occur within the Annenberg Center
for Performing Arts. I should note that these kiosks are located you can see here along Walnut
Street these are the existing kiosks that are to be removed and you can see this is a rendering
of the one double-sided kiosk that is to be replaced. You can see it's out of the path of
pedestrian travel. It's off of the sidewalk. It is not at all engaging with the vehicular traffic
that's passing by and is really scaled to the pedestrian. The next location, location number 2,
37th Street. This is the existing location. This entry is also very much set back from
Walnut Street, and one of the goals is to try to activate and animate this entry. And you can see
the location in red of the new proposed double-sided kiosk, and then a rendering that shows
the proposed location. Same size, same orientation, again not at all engaged with the vehicular or
pedestrian traffic on Walnut Street. And then finally on Annenberg Plaza, looking to the right
you can just kind of see Walnut Street but it's really set back. This is the existing location,
proposed location here is in red and then a rendering to show the future or proposed
location for this single-sided kiosk or display. And I'm happy to go into more detail, but that's
the general overview for the proposed locations. Thank you. Any questions from the board?
i know i have a couple questions on yeah so um the signs you said it was off the sidewalk do you
know that whether or not is out of the right of way yes it looks like it is but i i don't have a
map of the right of way nope uh that is confirmed it is set back from the property line uh will you
Nope, that is confirmed. It is set back from the property line.
Will you use it for anything other than Annenberg related activities? Will there be any
use it for any
advertising or any other kind of messages on this besides what is happening at the Annenberg Center?
I'd be happy to answer unless Ira wants to speak to that.
I think Chloe would be the right person to answer. The answer is actually no.
but it's strictly I mean Chloe can adopt that but um it's strictly related to the Annenberg
uh performances at the Annenberg or other arts um activities that are happening on campus
no commercial use. Okay and although this doesn't relate to this environment I believe you're going
to need to go to PennDOT because it's uh Walnut's uh state highway and it's visible from uh Walnut
street so you'll probably need their permit as well after you get a zoning permit from the city
no any other any other questions from the board
maybe i just have Chloe make a brief statement yes please
uh shall i stop sharing uh i don't know if if you need to for chloe to participate
no is she seeing her screen also no
then it's fine if you're still sharing your screen
okay can you all hear me yes we can now would you please spell spell your full name and i'll
swear you in sure my name is chloe chloe rizen r-e-i-s-o-n you can swear a firm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do yeah please proceed sure so um just briefly i'll
say that our goals for the signage are really to increase public awareness of the annenberg center
and its offerings, including more effectively communicating about programming taking place
in the building and promoting better wayfinding, as well as to increase public awareness more
generally about the arts of the university. So for example, and to answer your question,
events taking place elsewhere in the arts on campus, such as Penn Libraries, ICA, or the Penn
Museum to promote greater public engagement. These new digital signs would allow us to do that while
also reducing the footprint of the signs themselves. There will not be other promotion.
These will be used strictly for promoting the arts at Penn and not for advertisement.
Thank you. Any other questions? Is there anyone else to testify in this case?
no hands at this time chair thank you john monlike would you be uh feel a little more
comfortable if we put a proviso in i'm fine okay you can but i'm fine okay thank you uh planning
commission thank you chair nicole azamir for planning commission staff so the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the existing institutional special purpose zoning at this
location. The proposal seeks to update signage for the existing use. Accordingly, we recommend
that the board grant the requested variances. MI 2021-001571, 3600-90 Walnut Street. My vote is
yes with the proviso. No commercial advertisement. All subject matter would be related to the Annenberg
and Penn University activities. Excuse me, Chair, you can of course add any proviso that you'd like,
but that is already a given because it otherwise isn't an accessory sign.
So I'll withdraw that and we'll just vote as a yes. Thank you. Thank you. My vote is yes.
my vote is yes my vote is yes it's number seven mi 2021-001857 401 north broad street
meredith feliger is the attorney of record and cowl hill neighbors association
sent a letter of support and councilman mark squilla sent a letter of non-opposition
And she's coming in now and as a panelist.
Good afternoon.
good afternoon i'm meredith can you put your name and address on the record and spell your
last name sure meredith ferliger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r 1500 market street suite 3500 e with delworth
paxton do you swear or firm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth i certainly do
do you also agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral,
go to a center of plans to the property five days in advance of this hearing,
and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all of the above.
Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Again, my name is Meredith Ferliger.
I am here today on behalf of Nerd Street Gamers,
and they are represented here today by Anthony Perno,
who I will bring up a little bit later just to adopt my testimony. Before the board today is
401 North Broad Street. As you can see in the photo at tab 14 that I do have up on the screen
right now, this is an absolutely massive building of nearly 1.3 million square feet that sits
between Broad Street, Callow Hill Street, Noble Street, and North 13th Street. The historically
designated building itself is quite interesting and is known as neutrality data centers.
That is the East Coast's largest telecom server house. In fact, most of the country's East Coast
internet traffic goes through this building. More information about the building itself
and the unique history of it I included at tab 6 in your packet. Now as a result of this building's
unique capacities, it's unsurprising that a tenant like Nerd Street Gamers came knocking.
The application before the board today concerns the first floor of the building,
which is slated to be occupied by Nerd Street Gamers.
As you can see in your packet at tab five, and as I have up on the screen here right now,
nerd street is an e-sport infrastructure company that has a national network of e-sport training
centers tournaments event support and other gaming content so at this facility nerd street will be
doing a couple things they'll be they'll be producing and distributing e-sport content
they will it will also serve as what they refer to as a local host which provides state-of-the-art
facilities for high-end gaming. Finally, the facility will also offer in-person and online
tournaments and events. I'll briefly scroll through some of the renderings of what you can
expect this space to look like once it is complete. So this is an actual photo of one of their other
locations, and then this is what you can expect that this particular space would look like. So
this is of course where they would be holding events where folks would come to watch some of
the gaming and participate as they would. So the actual variance request before you today is quite
minimum. As you can see in the zoning map at tab 7 that I have up on the screen, this property
retained its I2 industrial zoning when the city remapped the area a couple years back as a result
of the unique nature of this building's predominant use. As you can see, most of the surrounding area
is zoned either CMX4 or CMX3. Prior to this application, Nerdstree was able to secure
a by-right zoning permit to accommodate some of its use, which was described as artisan studios,
office, and radio television recording services. The challenge lies with the aspects of Nerd Street's
use that involve gathering of people for events, tournaments, gaming, things like that. As you can
expect, the zoning code did not quite envision a Nerd Street type of use, so the closest use
category that the examiner could assign here was as a nightclub or private club, which isn't really
what's proposed here, but it was the closest category that they could lump this into.
That, of course, is prohibited in the I-2 zoning district. So the hardship, of course, that we've
described is simply that Nerd Street, the use is partially prohibited and partially permitted.
The use itself is well in context with the high density surrounding area and will bring life and
activity to a building that has very little active human use. It's also well in character
It's also well in character with the existing use of the building itself, with a heavy focus on technology and communication.
with the existing use of the building itself with a heavy
We submit this as the least minimum variance that ensures all of NERD Street's use is captured and permitted appropriately.
The proposal will not create congestion, impair light and air, or negatively impact surrounding properties.
My full argument is captured in my memo of law attached at tab 9.
As you know, Callow-Hill's excited letter of support is included at tab 13, and as you mentioned, we did have a letter of non-opposition from the councilman.
At this time, I would ask the administrator to unmute Anthony Perno, and I will have him adopt my testimony.
Anthony, can you put your name and address on the record, please?
Yes, my name is Anthony Perno.
Anthony, would you please spell your last name?
P-E-R-N-O
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Anthony, you've heard all of my testimony before the board today. Is that correct?
That is correct.
And would you agree that testimony was true and accurate and would you adopt it as if it were your own?
Yes, I would.
Thank you. We'd be happy to take any questions you have about this relatively unique use.
any questions from the board no no anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please
raise your hand and there's no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission thank you
chair nicole ozdemir with steep planning staff the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning change
from the existing I-2 medium industrial zoning to CMX-4, the second highest density commercial
mixed use zoning district at this location. The proposed zoning district would seemingly
permit the proposed uses and accordingly recommend that the requested variance be granted.
Thank you. MI-2021-001857, 401 North Broad Street. My vote is yes.
my vote is yes my vote is yes
i think carol is gone for the rest of the afternoon possibly thank you thank you thank
you have a good uh number eight and nine on our list mi 2021 that's zero zero one seven two zero
4223 Palton Avenue and MI 2021-001-612-4225 Palton Avenue. Mr. Bertil is representing both cases.
There are, we have not yet, unless it's been received recently, letters from the RCO.
That's West Palton and Saunders Park. Excuse me, Chair. We do have an email from
Andrew Goodman of Councilwoman Gauthier's office saying the Councilwoman strongly opposes these
projects. And we still have not, oh, this is Mr. Betts Hill, still have not received letters from
the RCO. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I believe the RCO did actually email in a letter of
opposition um either yesterday or uh the evening before um i imagine uh that that promulgated uh
the councilwoman's email as well but i i can forward it over to uh mr leto all right i think
they don't always copy me i did um send mr goodman a request that he forward them to me if he has
them if you could send them to yeah no problem i'm more than happy to do that okay so we'll