where am I
this is the living and dining area
of the first floor
and the kitchen for the first floor
first floor bedroom
first floor bathroom
and I believe I have to bring up another file unfortunately but if I can just explain if you
don't have to see the interior this time around the second floor is two-story as you can see
with a deck on the on the side it is completely it has no side area rear area or frontage it is
right on the street. Surrounding this, across the street from this property, is a huge parking lot
adjacent to a church that allows, and before COVID, before we had the pandemic,
the church was allowing the neighbors to park on that lot. Because the church is not having
services, they close the lot as well. We expect that when that opens back, we will have parking
available again for all the units on the block. Across the street are multiple, you have multi-family
dwellings as well. This is a real mixed eclectic block of properties. Most residential on this
side of the block and the other side is the church, the parking lot, and you have a huge
senior citizen's facility.
We are asking nearly that you legalize what was approved, that you reinstate what was
approved back in 2017, that the first floor be a residential unit and that the second
floor also continue to be a residential unit.
And that is really the gist of the request.
Okay, thank you.
Do you have any witnesses?
I have, standing by is the owner for the property
if you needed to have heard.
We'll stipulate you as a officer of the court
that your client would adopt your testimony.
Going forward, any questions from the board?
no anyone else would anyone like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
mr chair i have a charles richardson with his hand up i will allow him to speak
so he can be good afternoon mr richardson you're still under oath from earlier
please identify yourself for the record good afternoon mr chair charles richardson
office of councilwoman cindy bass room 312 city hall councilwoman has no objection to
granting the variance thank you planning commission
good afternoon brian wenrich city planning commission staff this property has a documented
history of two units accordingly we do not object to the granting of this variance thank you mi 2020
that's zero zero two one one nine one oh nine west rittenhouse street my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes okay miss haskins you
had a you had a good day three for three thank you very much you got a hat trick okay am i excuse
me. I'm sorry. This is Sharon Saleta. Could we call Rachel Pritzker is waiting for a case that
is not included on your list? I believe you received a text message 327 North Front Street.
Yeah, I need the MI number or the appeal number. Okay, but are we going to hear that last?
I thought we were going to hear it last. Yes. Sharon, is that okay? It's fine. I'm sorry. I
misunderstood tanya i thought that sorry no because unfortunately i misput this on the list
so i'm trying to get planning commission a weigh-in at that time so this will give them a few
minutes to get that done okay i misunderstood i apologize no worries no worries we're gonna go
Okay, I misunderstood. I apologize.
No worries. Thank you.
We're going to go to the next case, MI2020-000973-1121-33 North Front Street.
Okay, Mr. Chair, I have a Mr. Brandon Okus.
Is he being promoted to a panelist or just allowed to speak?
Mr. Okus, are you the owner?
He's the owner, yes.
Or it looks like he's the applicant at least.
So you can promote him, Jason, so the board can question him.
Understood.
good afternoon mr chairman members of the board hi please identify yourself with the records by
your first and last name my name is brendan olkus b-r-e-n-d-a-n last name's olkus o-l-k-u-s
and you swear to the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do are you the after have you uh emailed professor i have yes are you the are you the
applicant i i'm the applicant okay but i'm sorry what's your relationship yep do you own the
property oh no at least the property okay mr okus i'm not seeing a deed or a lease in your exhibit
packet. Did you submit them once? I thought I did. I'm sorry. I'll check again. Let me be sure. Okay.
If not, I have it here. I maybe just didn't wind up enough. Okay.
I'm sorry about that. That's fine. I have everything else, so you can go ahead. Professor,
Sir, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
I have, yes.
And the documents that you emailed, you emailed them five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
um i'm asking for um a non-accessory off-street parking um rezone for the for a lot at 11 21 to
11 29 north front street uh the lot is um across the street from my my business which is a bar
restaurant at front and gerard um and i want you the lot i need to i need to interrupt you said
yeah 11 21 through 11 29 yeah but it's at it's listed as 11 21 because it's one lot
okay because it says a lot to through to 11 11 33 i that's a mistake that's 11 29 okay yeah thank
you um we uh i i wanted to um just use it for uh off street parking for my employees and
my staff and myself we've been closed since march um and i have no idea when we'll open again
but if and when we do survive if we survive the pandemic uh i want to have uh i wanted to have
parking for my uh my staff to relieve the neighborhood of the parking congestion um we
were given the support of the fna um zoning committee uh rco and also the uh the fishtown
bid RCO. And yeah, any photographs you can share with us? Yes. Yeah, let me. Yeah, we'll move quickly. I just want to see some of the photographs.
This is, well, here's the floor plan. Let me pull that up and then share. All right. Share screen. Okay. This is the floor plan.
Okay, if you can see on the left-hand side of the floor plan, you have the view looking south.
There's already a curb cut that's existed there for a long time.
It's pretty cut and dry.
We agreed to to landscape it according to city planning standards using using the shrubs that city planning suggested.
Anything that needed to be done in terms of their standards, we agreed to it.
It's it's it's pretty cut and dry.
It was a blight lot. It was filled with trash. I cleaned it out. I dug it out. I put gravel down. It'll be cleaned three times a day. We'll have it monitored by our security through the course of the day to make sure that nothing's going on and no one's illegally there.
It was it was a blight lot. It was filled with trash. I cleaned it out. I dug it out.
and um yeah okay all right um excuse me this is sharon again um i was unable to find the lease
in the packet so once this presentation is done if you could just hold the vote while miss britzker
presents her case and mr okus if you could email it to me then the board could vote
thank you very much okay all right uh let's go forward any questions from the board
anyone else like to testify in this case please raise your hand
so chair there's a kevin eisenberg who i will allow to speak now
thank you mr eisenberg please identify yourself with the records by your last name and provide
us with your address hi my name is kevin eisenberg i-s-e-n-b-e-r-g
and i'm the owner of 1121 north lee street okay you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed um i just wanted to note several things um
on this drawing lee street is only six feet six inches wide
also there's there's no entrance or exit on lee street it's it's going to be it's going to be
closed off the only entrance or exit is on north front so at least also that these pictures are
very old um there's a six-story condo um unit that is next door to it and he has it listed as
a vacant lot uh no that's not true the adjacent the lot next to it is actually a vacant lot
the lot the second lot over is there's a six-story condo being built so that's that's not true
yes and also that this lot has been used over the past what year two years um three years
and it's been used as a parking lot and storage for his trash and it's
you guys are talking over each other hold on mr holkus that it is used by the nuisance bar
down the block it is usually unregulated there is um constantly drinking going on
and parties going on in the lot by the uh customers of the said saint bar which is
almost a half a block away um there were several other residents how do you know they're coming
from this okay so are you are you sworn in because mr okis mr okis so yeah sorry how do
you know they're coming from mr olcus establishment i'm not sure but the sign is for um for the lot
that's usually posted out front is saint parking only and you're suggesting that people leave mr
olcus establishment and walk a block or two to go drink outside it is not a block it is a half a
block oh so i thought i heard you say a block no if it was two blocks away i don't know why would
they would want to use it and store their trash i i understand i misspoke i thought i heard you
say two blocks okay um yeah and anything else that um they keep a dumpster there and the dumpster is
usually emptied around three to four in the morning and it's full of glass and it wakes up
the whole block there were several other people logged in waiting for the meeting it looks like
i was the only one that uh stayed on mr olcus do you have a trash of container there
you have to unmute yourself
unmute yourself
yes we we had we had trash removal there when we were open i can't afford it anymore because
well i mean that's however we do have a permit and a tag on it um and that's the first thing
the second thing is is that um this gentleman referred to us as a nuisance bar uh first firstly
let me say that you can, I'm on the PDAC board. I mean, I'm on, I'm a member of the PDAC at the
26th. We have seven or eight yearly letters or certificates of thank you from, from the, the
26th for community participation. We have support from Councilman Spill's office. We're not a
nuisance board. I don't know where that would come from. So if you were under oath and accused
me of that. I mean, I think that you should probably check that out before you make a statement like that.
All right. I mean, I think that you should probably check that out before you make a statement like that, because that's an actual thing.
All right. Thank you.
We are we are we have we had our RCO meeting. We had people speak on our behalf, our behalf.
The police department would speak on our behalf. We're OK.
We are. I don't know what's going on over there for the past nine months because I've not been there and I can't use it.
so and and and i can't stop people from you know they took they took my barriers down
and park in there i can't stop anyone from doing that because i'm not there
um and i don't have access to it so okay understood thank you anyone else wish to
testify in this case if so please raise your hand
there are no hands thank you planning commission
good afternoon brian wendrick city planning commission staff this property is indicated
for commercial residential mixed use on the comprehensive plan therefore we have no objection
to the granting of these variances to support the neighboring businesses so long as the parking lot
landscaping requirements are met. Thank you. MI 2020-000973. 1121-29 North Front Street. My vote
is yes. Excuse me, Chair. You were going to hold this until after Rachel's case. Oh, I'm sorry.
Okay. Thank you. All right. Mr. Alkus, you have to unmute yourself.
I'm going to email the lease over to you. Okay. Then we'll vote it once we get that. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. We're going to go to the add-on. I don't have a calendar number
for 327 North Front. Tanya.
um hi chair um yeah we have a calendar um yes sorry i'm doing 20 things
um calendar number mi 2020 002263 327 north front street thank you and jason you can promote
ms pritzker and good afternoon ms pritzker you're still under oath from earlier today
for this afternoon or whenever it was
good afternoon please identify yourself with the record and as i said you're still under oath
okay rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r 1635 market street suite 1600 philadelphia pa
19103 thank you please uh confessor
is this an atom was this her before um no this is a case that i i missed putting on the list for
today so she's going to go forward as a regular case okay great uh you agree to waive the reading
of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes also have you emailed an exhibit packet with the
required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral
folders and plans five days prior to this hearing? Yes. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a
letter? Yes. Thank you. Please proceed. Can you promote Rustin Oler? He is the architect for this
matter and he'll be providing the plans. While he does that, while you promote him, I'll just
share my screen and go through the refusal. This is 327 North Front Street. We are asking to build
a single family dwelling with two interior parking spaces covered balconies at the second
through fourth floors and a roof deck access by a pilot house. We are providing a solar structure
on this building. It will be completely solar powered as the owner of the property. That's
the line of business he's in. We were refused for open area, although I do believe this was
an error. The lot is shorter than 45 feet in depth, so lots that are shorter than 45 feet
in depth as per RM1, which this lot is zoned, are not subject to the same open area requirements.
We do agree to the refusal as far as the maximum height is concerned. We have a refusal. RM1 allows
for 38 feet and we're providing 51 feet 10 inches so um again that's to uh utilize the
solar structure and i'll have roll um rust and oler go in and share the plans
hi everybody hi please identify yourself with the record spell your name and i'll swear you in
yeah rustin oler last name o-h-l-e-r uh harman deutsch oler architecture address is 1225 north
7th street philadelphia pa thank you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
about the truth i do thank you please proceed yeah i'm going to share my screen
um so yes can everybody see that before yes yes so as rachel mentioned uh we're 327 and 29 north
front street um this is a unique uh block of philadelphia between front street and water street
um as you'll see what i go through here uh every building on the entire
block face here goes from street to street, occupies 100% of the property,
and is a series of single-family homes and mixed-use multi-family properties.
We are proposing a single-family dwelling. It's about 3,800 square feet.
You can look at the, we did two context plans, so if you can look at the top of the page,
you can see basically highlighted in yellow all the properties that are occupying 100% a lot
the entire block from vine street through to callahill street here and then we did a height
comparison because we are asking for height variance there is about a story difference
between front street and water street water street is lower as we're on a hill here you
the one water street apartments which is like 175 feet which is an extreme case and then the rest of
the block um are over 35 feet and as you can see we are either in line um or lower than the other
properties here on on that block uh you can see the height difference here uh in yellow as well
um so it's basically just a single family home it's about 3 800 square feet um there's a series
of garages on water street um which are in the pictures on the first page um almost all the
properties have a garage accessed off of water street um which is the kind of the rear and then
front street is the primary entrance for the majority of the buildings on this block so we
have a two car garage access through one curb cut off water street um living room at the second floor