Since then, the applicants have spent over a million and a half dollars in sort of rehabbing
the property, refacing it, putting new facades, retaining anchor tenants, and bringing in
new tenants to the property, and also just sort of getting rid of all the problem issues
there and hiring and maintaining the property to a good standard. Since the acquisition,
they've been bringing in a CVS. They were here a few weeks ago for approval for a car wash,
a valet car wash. They've brought in a boxing school, a kickboxing school coming next. They've
done a lot on the property to change from what historically has been basically an outdoor in
Franklin Mills area that has been known for sort of a high vacancy.
As I stated, the area in question is this area circled here, which is designated as unit four on this property.
Essentially, it's a vacant blacktop area that's not utilized for parking as the parking demands of the structure rarely, if ever, overflow into this area.
So as such, it's basically unused, uncapitalized area.
um the main frontage of the although the address is 4501 woodhaven which is here you can see
woodhaven the main frontage of this section uh is franklin mills boulevard which is this road here
and then also liberty bale boulevard which is road here
now um the intent so this property as i said with this section with that um in question for
this application, this isn't the first time that the owners, since acquisition, tried to make a
productive use of this property. Initially, they attempted to maybe utilize the space for some sort
of car sales use. That was something that the community didn't want and didn't support, so that
didn't happen. After that, they attempted to try to use this property as some sort of large truck
parking site that is not uncommon in the northeast area of Philadelphia. The community also didn't
support that project or that use as well. So they went back to the drawing table and
sort of thought about what's going on in terms of the vacancies and kind of fill this structure here
and also sort of the current climate when it comes to people sort of going out and trying to get food
and social distancing, and frankly, just being able to bring some excitement and livelihood to
this area of the property. People are intimately familiar with Franklin, excuse me, Philadelphia
Mills Mall. It was Franklin Mills when I was growing up, but Philadelphia Mills Mall here,
but this has been long for a neglected area of this site as a whole.
So what are we proposing? Essentially, we want to turn this section here into a site where food trucks can come and park during the day and provide takeout options for patrons of the physical brick and mortar tenants and just people sort of driving past,
bringing sort of an alternative and unique options in terms of food options to the area
that's distinct from the typical sort of national chain that you would typically see in a brick
and mortar shop. Right here, right next to the lot is a Burger King. Up across the road,
there's a few sort of standalone brick and mortar shops, things such as Wendy's or Wine and Spirit
store, Boston Market, Taco Bell, etc. And so, this is not, we're not attempting to compete.
And so this is not, we're not attempting to compete with these national chains or franchises.
We're seeking out local small business food trucks that have unique sort of food options,
something not dissimilar that you would see on a university's campus or downtown or anywhere where food trucks are typically allowed.
Now, we did, in terms of the refuel, or not refuel, referral, because this is zoned as commercial CA1, actually we're probably going to that, let me just give you a closer sense of how large this, this is the sort of culture aerial view of the lot that we're referring to, or the area of the property that we're referring to.
So it's over three acres.
OPA has about 250,000 square feet.
We're only seeking 10 food trucks.
And basically, so we can have the flexibility
depending on what works for the areas of placement.
As you can see, it's over four times the size of the lot
that the Burger King is getting on.
So in terms of like congestion or anything like that,
there's just more than enough space to accommodate
the amount of trust we're talking about here. Now, the reason that we received the referral
is because the use of the takeout restaurant requires a special exception. As the board
knows, there isn't a hardship requirement with special exception referral, but it does
require us coming before the board and making our proposal. By right, we could do, if we
wanted to do a sit-down restaurant, we can do that. By right, a grocery store or a prepared
food shop. Basically, every other food-based youth in the commercial district is allowable
by right, except takeout restaurants require a special exception.
Now, we did have a community meeting last night, as I stated earlier. There, we attempted to have a community meeting earlier. We received notice of the assigned community group in October, early October, and we make good faith, you know, constant efforts to try to meet with the group earlier to get feedback about what we were trying to do.
um i believe he sent over 10 emails it wasn't able to happen thankfully councilman o'neill's
office um alex was able to um at the last minute get us in front of some community members uh last
night and there were some concerns that were expressed that i want to briefly discuss um
the first concern that was pretty prevalent among the individuals there was just sanitation concerns
And so I want to be clear to the community and to the board that the intention of the owners here is to, one, hire additional designated maintenance workers for the specific unit.
But also, which was explained to the community members that attended last night, that the food truck leases that we intend to engage in will require physical maintenance of the area, but also require monetary contribution to keeping maintenance staff on site.
In addition to that, the leases that we are engaging in with the food truck small businesses are month-to-month leases, which gives us the opportunity, if there's a problem, sort of food truck that's not sort of like cleaning up properly and, you know, when they're closing up for the day and driving off or anything like that, to, you know, to remove them from the property and not to continue to engage with them.
And as such, it's not an issue where we're signing like a year lease, you have a problem
tenant, and it'll take a long time to either get them out or resolve the issue.
The second matter that was discussed was restrooms for patrons.
Our intention here for this site is for it to be transient.
We want it to be a food truck site to use as takeout, not as a sit down restaurant or
not as for people to eat on site.
We don't want to encourage people to stay and eat, and we believe that adding restaurant
facilities of any kind will be a net negative for the area because it will encourage people
to stay, eat, dispose of the trash, subsequent to eating on site.
And that's not something that we want to encourage.
And we also believe, frankly, when it comes to just things like quarter potties and things
of that nature, this community never wants that anyway.
So the type of facilities that would be required is not really tentable, but it's also not something that we want to do because we want this to be a takeout use.
SO THE TYPE OF FACILITIES THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED IS NOT REALLY TENIBLE, BUT IT'S ALSO
If we wanted to do a sit-down restaurant, we would just do that by right and we wouldn't be here.
And lastly, the third concern that we heard was a net negative effect on the mall's food court or surrounding brick-and-mortar businesses.
So just to touch on the food court, we're just frankly not targeting the same demographic there.
The food court's targeting mall foot traffic, and that's not who we're looking to sort of target with this.
As you can see from the aerial here, anyone that's going to be utilizing the mall for foot traffic and utilizing their other services will not be parking over here or driving through this lot.
We're really targeting people who are using the tenants that we have on our parcel and anyone who's driving, you know, after our parcel who may be aware that there's food trucks there.
We really aren't competing with the interior of them all.
And as I stated earlier, when it comes to these sort of standalone sort of restaurants or commercial businesses here, most of these are national chains or franchises.
That's just not what we are looking to put here.
We are looking to put, again, local small business food trucks that are transient and that can bring something different.
and basically serve the patrons that would be coming to utilize the tenants that we have
on site already. And, you know, if you're walking out to your car, you see a food truck,
you may walk up there and get a snack, get a quick lunch and take it to your car and keep it
moving. Mr. Bertil, excuse the interruption. You may have testified to this. I may have missed it.
is there any seating or we'll just you just go up order and get your food and either get in your
car or leave that's the intention the latter we're not we don't intend to have those seating
outside at all right okay right we don't intend to have seating uh now some of the some of the
food trucks of you may be aware of the ones downtown or anything like that they have like
the little kilners when you walk up and things like that and they may have like a a standing
store where people are waiting but we're not providing seating or anything okay thank you
all right if you can uh uh yeah so i the so in terms of um and again so that's that's the
concerns that we heard we feel like they're we've either addressed them or the concerns are ones that
um we don't intend to do anyway um and so as such we believe that this is a something that
will be a vibrant use for the area won't have a negative effect on the community itself i had um
a representative from the owners of two brothers um on the call he may not be on anymore because
i think he had a commitment he was on at 330 but if robbie uh if you're on if you could raise your
hand and if not as an officer the court will stipulate that your client would be adopting
your testimony. Okay. Thank you. Any questions from the board? No. Is there anyone that would
like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your hand. We have Alice Udovich. You've been
unmuted. Good evening, Alice. Please identify yourself with a record. Spell your last name.
Good evening, Chair and members of the board. Alice Udovich, U-D-O-V-I-C-H,
from councilman brian o'neill's office do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do thank you i wanted to mention because i'm i'm sure you're
not in receipt yet of the letter from the millbrook civic and the franklin mills advisory
council that the 14 members uh did vote to oppose this project and the councilman does as well
as were as was mentioned on those two roadways you do have folks that are in brick and mortar
establishments most of them have takeout windows where they've had to provide safe means of ingress
and egress as well as they're probably paying either hefty lease uh rents and um what have you
I just feel like this really hurts those establishments, as well as is not a good fit for the community.
This isn't University City. These won't be parked at a curb.
It will simply not be safe to have cars pulling up to these food trucks that are parked in the middle of a big parking lot.
these food trucks that are parked in the middle of a big parking lot.
Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.
One thing. So our intention is not to have cars pull up to the food truck. So the reason,
and it's partly as gratuitous the way that this lot is, or this unit is shaped, that we can
um literally sort of cut off this section of the parking lot and have people walk up and like have
a designated entrance not dissimilar to if you go to any sort of um um street festival or anything
like that that has a bunch of food trucks where this section would not be open for cars to be
driving it would be you would be parking and walking into the food truck section of of the
site so in terms of safety there will be no active vehicle movement in this in this area here.
Thank you and but I do have concern and I think Alice she raised a good point especially with
this pandemic brick and mortar facilities restaurants retail are suffering tremendously
and the competition in some cases is good I think in this case the competition could be
the final blow to some of those establishments uh having said that there are any other
individuals who like to testify in this case
there are no other hands at this time chair thank you planning commission
good evening ariel de liberto with the city planning commission this property is owned for
commercial auto oriented the applicant has demonstrated the proposed use will not cause
detriment beyond what would normally be expected from this use accordingly we do not oppose the
granting of the variance thank you mi 2020-001823 4501 woodhaven road my vote is no my vote is no
my vote is no my vote is no my vote is no thank you i believe that concludes the uh 3 30 session
yes chair that's it for today that's it any unfinished business
not that i have okay all right folks i'll see you tomorrow morning nine o'clock executive
session stay safe thank you thank you everyone thank you ariel it was good to see you good to
see you too tanya all right bye-bye thanks all right bye-bye thanks have a good night
have a good night all right once i get out of here