DEVON THEATER ZONING FLIER - PLEASE PRINT AND CIRCULATE

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NE Times: Mayfair Civic to host zoning meeting for Devon Theater

North­east Times

The May­fair Civic As­so­ci­ation settled two old zon­ing is­sues dur­ing the group’s monthly meet­ing on May 18, but a much big­ger one may be just get­ting star­ted.

MCA lead­ers an­nounced that the group will hear a po­ten­tially con­tro­ver­sial zon­ing case in­volving the Devon Theat­er at a spe­cial meet­ing on June 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the May­fair Com­munity Cen­ter, 2990 Saint Vin­cent St. In short, a church group is seek­ing city per­mits to set up re­li­gious ser­vices, a day­care cen­ter and a food bank in the 70-year-old theat­er once known at the “Dirty Devon” be­cause of the por­no­graph­ic films that showed there.

The days of porn at the Devon are long gone. With busi­ness at the single-screen ven­ue dwind­ling in the late 1970s, the op­er­at­ors began show­ing adult fea­tures. Neigh­bors ran the skin flicks out of town a few years later.

But that doesn’t mean today’s com­munity lead­ers want a church oc­cupy­ing an an­chor prop­erty in the middle of May­fair’s busi­ness dis­trict. Speak­ing at last week’s meet­ing, MCA Pres­id­ent Donny Smith re­por­ted that the church bought the site late last year from a real es­tate in­vestor who had ac­quired it a few months earli­er. The same in­vestor holds the mort­gage on the prop­erty, Smith said.

City re­cords show that the King­dom Life Chris­ti­an Cen­ter bought it for $500,000 in Decem­ber. The prop­erty is as­sessed at $1.78 mil­lion. The land is more than one-third an acre, with the build­ing foot­print cov­er­ing most of that.

Joe De­Fe­lice, the zon­ing chair­man and leg­al coun­sel for the civic as­so­ci­ation as well as the board chair­man of the May­fair Com­munity De­vel­op­ment Cor­por­a­tion, noted that the CDC has been try­ing to get cer­tain types of prop­erty uses re­stric­ted on the av­en­ue in an ef­fort to pro­mote an ec­lect­ic mix of re­tail that will at­tract vis­it­ors. Re­li­gious ser­vices, day­care cen­ters and food banks are three of those uses that are less than ideal, De­Fe­lice said.

The CDC has long been a key play­er in re­devel­op­ing the Devon. With the help of state fund­ing in the mid-2000s, the CDC spent mil­lions to buy and re­hab­il­it­ate the old theat­er in­to a mod­ern per­form­ing arts cen­ter with the latest au­dio-visu­al tech­no­logy. Res­id­ent pro­du­cers staged sev­er­al shows there in 2009 and ’10 be­fore the CDC lost its pub­lic fund­ing due to re­ces­sion­ary budget cuts and sur­rendered the theat­er to Be­ne­fi­cial Bank.

Ac­cord­ing to the civic as­so­ci­ation, the re­li­gious group is already con­duct­ing ser­vices and host­ing con­certs in the theat­er pending zon­ing ap­prov­al.

In un­re­lated busi­ness, the MCA voted not to op­pose two old zon­ing ap­plic­a­tions. 

At 2000 McKin­ley St., the own­er wants to con­vert a gar­age in­to a cook­ing fa­cil­ity for third-party cater­ers. There will be no food con­sump­tion or take-out busi­ness on-site. At 6300 Frank­ford Ave., the own­er of a gas sta­tion and mini-mart wants to in­stall a deep fry­er so he can sell hot chick­en wings.

• Ruthanne Mad­way, ex­ec­ut­ive dir­ect­or of the May­fair CDC, re­por­ted that her or­gan­iz­a­tion is “in the home stretch” of es­tab­lish­ing a busi­ness im­prove­ment dis­trict along Frank­ford Av­en­ue and ad­join­ing blocks that will al­low mer­chants to be­ne­fit from pub­lic grants and oth­er pro­grams. The CDC is also host­ing a farm­er’s mar­ket on the 3500 block of Ry­an Ave. every oth­er Sunday from May 31 through Oct. 18.

• Mia Hylan, co-chair of the May­fair Me­mori­al Play­ground and an aide to state Rep. John Taylor, in­vited res­id­ents to May­fair Com­munity Night on May 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the May­fair Com­munity Cen­ter. Taylor will dis­trib­ute in­form­a­tion about seni­or rent re­bates.

• Two city traffic en­gin­eers presen­ted sev­er­al pro­pos­als for the in­stall­a­tion of a left turn lane on east­bound Cottman Av­en­ue at Row­land Av­en­ue. Prob­lem is, space is so tight at the in­ter­sec­tion that a dozen or more curb­side park­ing spaces could be lost. 

Neigh­bors didn’t like any of the ideas. The pro­ject re­mains in the design phase. ••

You can reach William Kenny at wkenny@bsmphilly.com.

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Special Zoning Meeting: Devon Theater and 7728 Fairfield Street

Monday June 15th, 2015
7:30 pm
Mayfair Community Center

The Kingdom Life Christian Center formerly of 6814 Torresdale avenue is seeking a Special Exception to operate a
• Church
• Daycare
• Food Bank/Pantry
at 6235 Frankford avenue – Formerly the Devon Movie Theatre

Residents are invited to this Special Zoning Meeting to share their opinions, and Members of the Mayfair Civic Association are invited to cast their Votes


Also, we will be hearing from 7728 Fairfield St to erect a one story structure, semi detached from a single family dwelling.

Mayfair Plans for Three Days of Community Betterment: Run, Festival, Market and Meeting

Mayfair Plans for Three Days of Community Betterment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:                                    Joe DeFelice, Chairman                    

Phone:                                      215-292-3926

Email:                                       josephjdefelice@mayfaircdc.org

Twitter/Facebook:         @MayfairCDC

THE MAYFAIR CDC, MAYFAIR CIVIC ASSOCIATION & MAYFAIR BUSINESS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCE THE 7^TH ANNUAL MAYFAIR FALLEN HEROES RUN, MAYFAIR MAY FAIR, MAYFAIR FARMERS MARKET AND MAYFAIR CIVIC ASSOCIATIION MEETING

            Mayfair, Philadelphia, PA -     May 12, 2015.  The Mayfair Community Development Corporations (MCDC), Mayfair Civic Association (MCA) and the Mayfair Business Association (MBA) are proud to announce three days of community betterment; complete with athletic activities, festivals, markets and a culminating with a community meeting.

Mayfair May Fair and Mayfair Fallen Heroes Run Saturday May 16, 2015

Mayfair officially kicks off summer 2015 with the 7th Annual Mayfair Fallen Heroes Run on Saturday, May 16, 2015. Chairman of the Mayfair CDC and one of the run organizers, Joe DeFelice says “This year we are honoring Police Officer Gennaro “Jerry” Pellgrini, who was killed in Iraq.  This will be our second year including a portion of Frankford Avenue, our main business thoroughfare along with some residential streets. It’s a bit of an uphill run along Frankford Avenue too, which makes it a little bit of a challenge and we’re hoping returning runners and new runners will enjoy the scenery.  We have included camouflage into this year’s run logo, courtesy of neighborhood resident Mike Ennis, to compliment Jerry’s service to our Country.”  Lisa Greco, co-organizer and owner of BellaLisa Hair Studios stated "We're really looking forward to having more runners participate so we can raise even more money for the FOP Lodge 5 Survivors Fund and to unveil our Badge of Honor which lists all previous year’s Honorees.”  The race kicks off at Rowland and Ryan Aves at 8:30AM on Saturday May 16, 2015.  Runners and Walkers can still register on race day starting at 7:30AM at the Mayfair Memorial Playground (Rowland Ave. and Vista St.).  “Since its inception, our Run has raised over $50,000 for charities that honor Police and Fire that were killed in the line of duty,” further added DeFelice.

On that same day, starting at 12pm is the Mayfair Business Association sponsored Mayfair May Fair. Organizers Donny Smith, president of the Mayfair Civic Association, Mike "Scoats" Scotese, president of the Mayfair Business Association and owner of the Grey Lodge Pub, and Mia Hylan, Mayfair CDC Board Member have been working hard with the planning. States Hylan, "This year we will, yet again, close down Frankford Avenue from Cottman to Bleigh Ave.  We will have live music from local artist REV  as well as artisans and crafters, a showcase of MBA members, face painting, balloon animals and local schools and organizations like Lincoln High School's Horticulture Department and Bisirri Pansy Garden who will assist children plant potted plants. We will also have a special presentation of our annual Mayfair Award, presented at noon to kick-off the Fair, to local resident Jim Berghaier who has had long and distinguished career in public service.”  Donny Smith added, "The Original Soft Pretzel Factory will also hold their Customer Appreciate Day with huge inflatable's, contests, and giveaways on the same day so it really is a great kid-friendly event, too.  We will also welcome back the Grey Lodge and their famous Beer Garden and are adding a video game trailer courtesy of the Game Train and will showcase military vehicles from the Greater PA Military Historical Society."  MBA President Mike “Scoats” Scotese, proprietor of the Grey Lodge stated, “It's great to have people walking the Avenue and seeing the great things the Mayfair Business community has to offer along with information booths and fun family activities; it's growing every year as we add more and more."

Mayfair Farmers Market Sunday May 17, 2015 10am-2pm Cottman & Frankford Aves.

Returning for its third season is the Mayfair Farmers Market sponsored by Republic Bank and the Mayfair Community Development Corporation and Allegheny Iron and Metal Co., Inc.  We've gone back to every other week but have added more vendors to our list.  Those vendors include

-           Fresh produce/plants/cheeses/specialty items from Capriotti Bros.

-          Artisan breads from DePalma’s (in Holmesburg)

-          Fifth of a Farm Jams & Jellies (in Fishtown)

-          Kathy’s People Kreations – cupcakes

-          Kathy’s Kanine Kreations – Gourmet dog treats

-          Dove Chocolates Discoveries ( Yvette Stinson, Dove Representative)

-          Mayfair Shop n’ Bag

-          PB & U Food Truck – Breakfast Sandwiches & home-cooked treats

-          Undrgrnd Donuts will rotate in as well

-          Mill Creek Apiary

-          Live music and pop up vendors will appear during the season

The Market will take place on the following Sundays: May 17, May 31, June 14,

June 28, July 12, July 26, August 9, August 23, Sept. 6, Sept. 20, Oct. 4 and Oct. 18 at Cottman and Frankford Aves from 10am-2pm.

Mayfair Civic Association Meeting Monday May 19, 2015 7PM at Mayfair Community Center

Agenda

·         Pledge of Allegiance - (Please silence all cell phones)

• Treasurer's Report 

Announcements / Updates

• Membership - (Must reside within Civic boundaries) - $10 per year / $40 - 5 year / $100 - Lifetime - Applications available at the rear or online at MayfairCivicAssociation.com
• Mayfair Community Development Corporation Update - Business Improvement District
• Mayfair Business Association Update
• Mayfair Memorial Playground Update
• Special Zoning Meeting – Monday June 15^th – 7:30pm – Mayfair Community Center – To address The Devon

Zoning

1.  2000 McKinley St. – Commercial Appeal – Alonzo Coates (2^nd Meeting)

Seeking a Zoning Variance to convert a pre-existing garage located behind a triplex into a Commercial Food Prep. Kitchen

2. 6300 Frankford Ave. – Commercial - Sean Ward – Express Fuel Gas Station (3^rd Meeting)

Seeking a Special Exception for Food Preparation including serving hot food for take-out at a gasoline station

Presentations

1.  James W. Kennedy – District Director for U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle

-           To provide information about services, recent legislative developments, and upcoming district developments

2. Alex DeSantis – Office of the Inspector General

-           To discuss eliminating fraud, corruption, and misconduct within City Government

3. Streets Department

-           To discuss adding a turning lane at Cottman and Rowland

4. Councilman Bobby Henon

-           To discuss Northeast 2020

Open Discussion

For more information visit www.mayfaircivicassociation.com

Mayfair Fallen Heroes Run and Mayfair May Fair - Saturday May 16, 2015

Mayfair Farmers Market This Sunday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:                                   Joe DeFelice, Chairman                    

Phone:                                     215-292-3926

Email:                                      josephjdefelice@mayfaircdc.org

Twitter/Facebook:                  @MayfairCDC

THE MAYFAIR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ANNOUNCES THE MAYFAIR FARMERS MARKET LINE-UP

The Mayfair Community Development Corporation is proud to announce the official “2015 Mayfair Farmers Market Line Up.”  Returning for its third season is the Mayfair Farmers Market sponsored by Republic Bank and the Mayfair Community Development Corporation and Allegheny Iron and Metal Co., Inc.  We've gone back to every other week but have added more vendors to our list.  Those vendors include

-           Fresh produce/plants/cheeses/specialty items from Capriotti Bros.

-          Artisan breads from DePalma’s (in Holmesburg)

-          Fifth of a Farm Jams & Jellies (in Fishtown)

-          Kathy’s People Kreations – cupcakes

-          Kathy’s Kanine Kreations – Gourmet dog treats

-          Dove Chocolates Discoveries ( Yvette Stinson, Dove Representative)

-          Mayfair Shop n’ Bag

-          PB & U Food Truck – Breakfast Sandwiches & home-cooked treats

-          Phoebes BARBQ Food Truck

-          Undrgrnd Donuts will rotate in as well

-          Live music and pop up vendors will appear during the season

The Market will take place on the following Sundays: May 3, May 17, May 31, June 14,

June 28, July 12, July 26, August 9, August 23, Sept. 6, Sept. 20, Oct. 4 and Oct. 18 at Cottman and Frankford Aves from 10am-2pm.

Hope to see you this Sunday.