A third gets green because it fits well with the waterfront,
they say
Three proposed businesses are taking zoning laws that ban
certain auto-related uses from the Central Delaware Waterfront on a test drive.
Waterfront advocates, planners and civic leaders say they
like the way those behind a Desimone Cadillac proposal for the corner of
Fairmount and Delaware avenues are handling the course. Their project calls for
an indoor auto showroom with a cafe on the ground floor and apartments on six
floors above. There's no big parking lot with cars outside. There's a mix of
uses, and there's activity on the ground floor, they say.
But the same groups are signaling red to a Piazza Auto Group
plan for a more typical auto dealership at the southwest corner of Delaware
Avenue and Brown Street, the site of a current bus facility. And they are
seeing red that L&I granted an over-the-counter permit for a AAA auto
repair shop near Delaware and Reed, saying the agency violated the zoning it's
supposed to uphold when it did so.
Reducing auto dependency along the Central Delaware, which
stretches from Oregon to Allegheny avenues, and from I-95 to the river, is
among the goals of The Central Delaware Master Plan and the Central Delaware
Overlay, which codifies the plan.
That doesn't mean banning cars or all car-related uses, said
Karen Thompson, planner/project manager at the Central Delaware Waterfront
Corporation, the quasi-city agency that manages city-owned Delaware Waterfront
land and oversaw creation of both the master plan and overlay. But it does mean
regulations and goals designed to make the waterfront people, bicycle and
mass-transit friendly. This includes buildings that are close to the sidewalk
and have active ground-floor uses, limits on curb-cuts and parking lots.
Outdoor auto storage “takes up a lot of space we feel has a higher and better
use under the Master Plan,” she said.
The Desimone plan
The Desimone project would be built on the site of a former
city asphalt plant. The bill allowing the sale, still in committee, was
recently endorsed by the planning commission. See previous coverage. Planning
commissioners, enthusiastic about the residential component, seemingly didn't
quite know what to make of the building itself, and hoped to get a chance to
learn more as the project is fleshed out (they will if variances are required).
There was no such ambiguity at the recent Central Delaware
Advocacy Group meeting. “From CDAG's perspective, it fits,” said Chairman Matt
Ruben. Ruben is also president of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association,
and said NLNA's zoning committee met with Desimone recently, and was largely
pleased. There are a few items still being discussed, such as greenery. CDAG
member Dianne Mayer, who represents Neighbors Allied for the Best Riverfront or
NABR, shared that concern, saying just a few trees could make a big difference.
Ruben praised Desimone for talking to community groups and First District
Councilman Mark Squilla about making the project fit with the Central Delaware
even before it's know if variances will be needed.
“It looks good,” said Marsha Bacal, of Society Hill Towers.
DRWC's Thompson said DRWC plans to meet with DeSimone. “I
will say, from what we've seen, it looks like they really wanted to work within
the overlay. It definitely looks like it could be really positive, with mixed
uses and active uses on the ground floor.”
Piazza Auto Group plan
Piazza Management Group has purchased the land, now used to
park Greyhound buses, Ruben said. Local developer Michael Samschick, whose Core
Realty is behind the Penn Treaty Village Pennthouse Apartments on the north
west side of the same corner, had a purchase agreement on the property, but it
said the former owner could sell it if more than a certain amount was offered.
Samschick never thought anyone would pay more than that ceiling, Ruben said,
but apparently, Piazza has. Piazza's plan: Building a fairly traditional car
dealership with a large lot of cars for sale. The site, Ruben said, is about
1.5 or 2 acres.
Calls made Thursday to Piazza and the project's land use
attorney, Ron Patterson, have not yet been returned.
But Ruben told CDAG that Piazza's interpretation of the
overlay is that they could build the dealership, so long as the building was
adjacent to Delaware Avenue and the car lot behind it.
That's not how CDAG sees things, and it's not how city
planners do either, said Natalie Shieh, who is deputy chief of staff for Deputy
Mayor and Planning Commission Chairman Alan Greenberger.
The overlay does allow accessory parking, so long as the lot
is behind the building and “holds the street line,” said Shieh.
But while Piazza considered the cars for sale accessory to
the business, “just like customer cars,” Ruben said, the PCPC disagrees.
“Refer to 14-507(4)(b) of the code,” Shieh wrote in an
email. “It says that a 'personal vehicle sales and rental' use is permitted, as
long as the use is in an enclosed structure. Any cars for sale are part of the
'personal vehicle sales and rental use,' and therefore must be in an enclosed
structure,” she said. (This is also why the Desimone proposal meets this
requirement.)
“They would have to get a variance to do this,” Ruben said
of the Piazza proposal.
Neither Shieh nor Rubin knew what Piazza's current plans
are.
Thompson said DRWC has never “officially” heard anything
about this proposal, but “a conventional car dealership is not in keeping with
the overlay,” and it's a “safe bet,” that DRWC would testify against the
granting of any variance.
AAA proposal
Although automotive repair is a prohibited use under the
Central Delaware Overlay, L&I on Jan. 2 issued a permit for “new
construction for the service and light repair of automobiles, retail sales of
travel services and insurance and business offices” at 1601 S. Christopher
Columbus Blvd., which is at the corner of Columbus and Tasker near the former
Foxwoods Casino site, and next to Home Depot, in Pennsport.
While the overlay had been in effect for about seven months
by the time that permit was issued, L&I spokeswoman Rebecca Swanson said
the date that matters is the date on which the application was filed – June 4,
2013, one day before the City Council Rules Committee voted to recommend its
passage to full council. Committee action makes a bill pending legislation, and
pending legislation must be applied by L&I, so the application just got in
under the wire.
“We issued the permit based on what was in place at time,”
Swanson said. “It wouldn't be fair if someone applied, and then the rules
changed, to say, 'now you can't have it.'”
But until the new overlay went into effect, and interim
overlay was in place. While the interim overlay did not prohibit auto repair
outright, it did require any permit applicant with a project on the east side
of Columbus Boulevard/Delaware Avenue to submit a Plan of Development to the
Philadelphia City Planning Commission, and go through a review process in which
PCPC could support the project, or not. Decisions were made based on both the
interim overlay and the goals of the master plan.
That did not happen.
Both the Pennsport Civic Association and CDAG say that
whichever overlay applied, the proper procedure was not followed.
“This should not have been granted,” Pennsport Civic
Association President Jim Moylan said. Pennsport has filed an appeal, and is
waiting for a hearing date before the L&I Review Board – a quasi-judicial
board that operates similarly to the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Moylan said Pennsport is appealing based on procedure, but
doesn't like the intended use, either. The area has enough auto repair, he
said, and if Pennsport is to be the southern gateway to the Central Delaware
Waterfront, there are other uses that are more appropriate.
“What is most upsetting (and) frustrating is there was a
law, an order, that already exists to protect us from this sort of thing, and
they still went and granted the permit anyway. They should have shot this down
before it ever got to us.”
People in Pennsport found out about the project when an
orange demolition sticker went on the vacant, former construction company
building that had been on the site.
CDAG's position is that Pennsport shouldn't have to appeal.
“To me, it's a no-brainer; L&I should revoke the permit,” Ruben said. CDAG
has said as much in a letter to L&I, a copy of which attached at the bottom
of this article.
Ruben said that since the interim overlay was in place until
the current overlay was adopted, one or the other would have to apply to any
permit. “L&I needs to pay attention to the law.”
Moylan said he and Squilla tried to get L&I to revoke
the permit, but were told that wasn't possible, and an appeal had to be filed.
Moylan is grateful to have found out about the proposed repair shop when he did
– Pennsport nearly missed the 30-day appeal filing window, he said.
Swanson said that CDAG would also be told that a permit
cannot be revoked without an appeal.
“We wouldn't just undo what we did. It's a legal process,”
she said. “L&I Review has to sort it out.”
Moylan said Pennsport attorney has advised them that during
the appeal, the permit-holder is allowed to start construction.
Thompson said DRWC is still researching the AAA project
situation and hasn't taken an official position yet, but according to the dates
supplied by L&I, “it should have triggered POD and it didn't.”
The project “is certainly not in keeping with” the goals for
Delaware Avenue, she said. “It's not a use that is an active, particularly
pedestrian-oriented use,” she said. Generally, the design of such facilities
involves lots of curb cuts, she said.
AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Jenny Robinson said in an email
that AAA hopes to start construction of the $3 million project this spring.
“AAA Mid-Atlantic began our process with the 1601 S.
Columbus Boulevard property in May 2011, and reached an agreement and lease
with the land owner after nearly two years of negotiations in January 2013,”
she wrote. “We then applied for and received zoning approval and building
permits, by submitting all required documents to the city’s Licenses and
Inspections department. After an extremely long process to secure this site, we
are excited about the location and plan to start construction in May.”
She said construction will employ “dozens” of union building
trade workers and bring 25 permanent jobs, including 12 automotive services
positions.
“AAA looks forward to being a positive part of the
community, just as we have been with our Car Care, Insurance and Travel (CCIT)
stores that we recently opened in Willow Grove, Clifton Heights and Wayne. Our
CCIT stores are clean, modern and attractive, quite different from the
perception of a typical automotive facility.”
AAA did not comment on the permit appeal.
Source: PlanPhilly.com
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