and this is our objective to be able to serve the community by providing more educational
opportunities for the children who live in our neighborhood. Now at the synagogue you said you
have preschool and you've had preschool for some time? Yes the preschool has been operating for
about 25 years now and there are approximately 70 students who attend each day there are
protocols in place for drop off and pick up things which ensure that the neighborhood
does not have any negative impact on the contrary there's a positive impact from
from the education that happens in our school, and we intend to be respectful neighbors as we have been as we've demonstrated for the past 25 years.
Have you had objections or concerns regarding the current operation of the synagogue, including the preschool?
No, we have not had any objections. Whenever there's been a neighbor that has had a concern,
we have been available to address the concern, and our neighbors are appreciative of what we do
for the community and have been very supportive. And what is the particular relevance and need
for this K through eight preschool as part of the educational, cultural, and religious aspect
of your synagogue? They say that to defend a country, you need an army, but to defend a
civilization, you need schools. Our mission is to provide transformative education through a
holistic, community-driven approach to learning.
And this does not exist in our neighborhood.
There are many, many families, some of them are here today with us who need this type
of education, have been asking for it for many years.
Our goal is to develop students into confident, knowledgeable leaders who will enrich society
by bringing light to their campuses, careers, families, and communities,
and to do that in a way which enhances the community.
This is going to be a community asset for all the neighbors, even beyond the students of the school.
Now, can you explain to me the process, which I mentioned, of filling up to get to the 180 students?
because apparently there's a process that gets there that may take five to ten years for full
occupancy? Yes. We are working with an educational partner who's going to help develop the curriculum
for the school, and their model is to start one grade at a time. So we would start the first year
with kindergarten, the following year with first grade, and go all the way through eighth grade.
And so to reach the capacity enrollment of 180 students will likely take years, and by that time we are confident that we will build a positive relationship with all of our neighbors, even those who are opposing this project today.
And we talked about the various meetings, meetings with near neighbors, meetings with Wash West, the stakeholder meeting that included Lombard Mews, Bradford Alley neighbors, Rodman neighbors, other neighbors.
And was that the process that led to the reduction in the size and scope of the project from the original concept?
and scope of the project from the original concept, and then even further reduced from the first revised plan?
Yes. The first meeting that we had, the first public meeting, which was facilitated by Washington West, is where we proposed the image on the top of the screen, which was approximately 20 feet higher than our current proposal.
Over the past seven plus months, we've had multiple meetings with many more stakeholders and neighbors, and we have made many concessions, both in terms of the building design and operations, to satisfy and address as many concerns as we can from our neighbors.
now you also uh were participating in various meetings with neighbors and the councilman squilla
correct we had um i would i would i would say that um we've had public meetings private meetings
stakeholder meetings and i've also had one-on-one meetings with some of the neighbors
who have been open to conversation and i found them to be overwhelmingly supportive
All right. And is there anything more that you believe that could be done to the project to address potential issues? Or are we now at the point where there's nothing further that can be done by way of design?
In terms of the design and the physical dimensions, we believe that we have really compacted the program into the smallest type of program without compromising the mission and the quality of the education that we intend to provide.
Now, the original plan called for an apartment for you and your family and two faculty apartments. The two faculty apartments have been removed. Tell us why you said that it's essential as part of the integrated cultural, educational, and religious process to be on site with this building. And I think you also mentioned today a security issue.
Yes. My family and I have been living in this neighborhood, as I mentioned.
However, one of the one of the missions of this educational school, many people, you know, ask this question, why is that important for the rabbi's residents to be on site?
um and that's a very valid question so i'd like to just take one minute to address that
in our conversations with neighbors many neighbors have told us that they appreciate
the fact that there will be a 24 7 presence on site with which will be more secure it will provide
oversight and security for the operations that happen inside the building this is not an uncommon
in faith-based schools to have a rabbi on site to oversee the operations and also
to provide an address for any concerns that come by. But there's also one more point that
is essential to recognize, and that is that part of our educational model is to offer experiential
learning and it's more than academics it's an effort to build character in our students
to address their social emotional needs to also address their spiritual health
of the students who will attend the school and in the original model and the original
proposed design that you see on the top of the screen there was also a synagogue as part of the
design we have since removed the synagogue but left the residence and the question is why
in jewish life and culture most of jewish practice happens in the home not in the synagogue
and so we want to have part of our educational mission is to invite community members namely the
students a classroom of students and their families into the home to be able to see firsthand
how jewish life is practiced and that's part of the experiential learning model
that we wish to provide and so having the rabbi's residence is not simply an
wish to provide and so having the rabbi's residence is not simply an add-on it is an
accessory use it's not the primary use but we believe that it is essential to being able to
offer this type of unique religious education that a private school or parochial school might offer
with having that component
of the rabbi's residence on site.
Our mission is to spread light
and we want to inspire the next generation
to be able to be ambassadors of light.
The last thing we want to do is to dim anyone's light
and certainly not our neighbors.
So we intend to be good neighbors
and respectful neighbors
and to raise youth and children and students
who will also be respectful members of society
who share our mission of spreading light.
And final question, Rabbi.
So you're familiar and you've signed a development agreement
with Lombard Muse, which has 32, 38 unit owners, 35.
And that agreement drafted between Mr. Bonnie and Stephanie from my office primarily, does that control activities, days, hours of operation, issues concerning noise, whether it be mechanical or whether it be ambient noise, are all those things covered to the mutual satisfaction as far as you know?
Yes, I want to just mention that the we have, we have done extensive details into the operations, which limit the noise hours of operation and traffic concerns, parking concerns, many of the other concerns that were raised by all of the neighbors.
Although Lombard Muse is not the only group of neighbors, we are willing to.
work with work out any concerns that other neighbors have um this agreement with lombard
muse is simply because they came to us as the immediate rear neighbor and asked to engage in
this process but certainly would not be limited to their their concerns we're certainly open to
addressing concerns of other neighbors as well and hope to have the opportunity to uh to work
with all of our neighbors as well. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, I have nothing
further by way of witnesses. Um, so I don't know if, uh, you want to hear from some of the
supporters. Maybe I can just have them raise their hand. I think we're, we got, I think we're out of
time. All right. All right. Can I just have the time? Yeah. And raise their hands. And if they're
here. Sure. The supporters can raise their hands. I mean, yeah. Wow. That's a lot. That's a whole
And we don't have time to hear from all of them today.
Maybe this whole week we won't have time to hear from them.
So we're going to do a resumptive hearing for this.
We're looking at 5-19-2026 at 9.30 a.m.
9.30 a.m.
And we will be back.
I mean, this is not over, so anybody who's in the audience, make sure they hear that there will be a continuation on 5-19, okay?
Thank you.
And thanks.
I'm sorry, Mr. Primavera, do you expect that there will be additional changes to the plans?
We're probably a week away from the final plans that will then go through the process with you to get them resubmitted back to L&I if necessary.
So that at the end of the total case, everything will line up.
Sounds good.
So I'll just make a note that there will be likely amended plans or amended refusal or something that we'll discuss next time.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
all right so we'll wait two minutes because i think a lot of people are going to leave
oh okay because that's and i'm one of them thank you thank you very much
thank you
way to clear the room chair
you know it's funny I can't see
I don't remember, I don't know.
I don't remember, I don't remember.
It was.
I might change.
There's so many people out there.
So, yeah, they got.
They don't work.
They're the biggest.
But, yeah, they are.
It's this one, right?
I don't know where they were built.
You know what else?
I'm thinking about Mother Festival.
side oh it was the synagogue's right next to my
but I think you know what else I think
there thank you very much for clearing the room
what's a little push a little push a little push
what will anne see is this hillary just come up with me and said do number eight next thing
it's got to be it's got to be alan alan's come with some story
you're number eight right
yeah I think you know is it eight right yeah yeah why don't you come up and we'll
44 16 local street why don't you just get ready to go so we'll finally have a room also
concerned with that thank god oh okay
okay everybody um so number eight m i twenty twenty five zero zero six six five one forty
four sixteen locust street alan knockamson is the attorney mr knockamson you already been
swearing could you just state your name for the record alan knockamson and could you identify your
client a relationship to the property yeah my client is iran magin who's the owner of the
property and this is going to be here in hold am i correct that's correct all right and our vice
chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing yes we have and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy i do okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you
um oh there's here
all right so we're here to uh present 4416 locust street um it's an rsa5 property um it's in the
spruce hill uh community um and what we're trying to do here is is legalize this three family
dwelling it has been a three family dwelling since a while my client purchased it in 2010
And the reason why we're here today is he hired, recently hired a management company.
And sadly, this is what happened.
Someone doesn't understand that they have to keep up with the rental licenses and such.
He had no idea that that was the case.
It's always been a three-family dwelling.
He purchased it as a three-family dwelling.
It was, when he purchased it, it was an RM1 property where, you know, the lot size is
1,570 square feet, which would technically allow for four-family dwelling if it remained
an RM1 property. Unfortunately, the zoning changed to RSA 5 when he was alerted to the
fact that he needed to go through this process to legalize the three units he has. My understanding,
and I haven't looked at the public record, my understanding is that there are no violations
with regards to this. So obviously someone can confirm that. So it's not like he's reacting to
a violation he just wants to do the right thing which he didn't know he he needed to get the
licenses so we'll review you know these 13 exhibits starting with the notice of refusal again this is
an rsa5 property this is a three-family dwelling not making any modifications to the floor plans
there's no basement living even so what is holding this up though is that the spruce hill community
and i did not attend the meeting so mr goldberg from my office did and based on what he told me
is that they were receptive to the legalization but they had issues with some of like the upkeep
of the building and so you know we you know obviously advised my client that they need to
fix that you know prior to the hearing unfortunately with the snow and all it was tough to get someone
out there we have no objection and obviously the board ruled on this you know to have this
presented have us do the work confirm the work and then i would assume that um that you know that they
confirm the work and then I would assume that um that you know that the you know the community group
may update their letter based on the work that was done um but I just want to let you know that
my client does have an estimate here for all the work that needs to get done um they're going to
replace the door that's on the ground level um on the front which only is accessed for the lower
level which is the basically the basement where you know no tenant has direct access to it but
So they want that replaced. They also want a railing installed for one of the exterior for the exterior staircase, which my client will do.
And I believe there's some fresh coat of paint in some other areas.
This is all reflected in this estimate, and my client's ready, willing, and able to do that and spend $5,185.35 to do that.
So, first of all, the history of the property and the current use of the property is a triplex.
It's been like that forever, legally for some time.
Unfortunately, what happens when the zoning changes on a person where they don't keep the rental license active, now they're subject to RSA-5 zoning, and that's why we're here today.
But we also looked, and I believe my team, and I always tell my team to do this, only show me legal, you know, like multifamily.
But you can see there's like 23 other instances close by of also multifamily structures in this vicinity.
So it's not out of character.
Also provided the Redfin listing showing when it was sold to him.
It was sold to him as a multifamily structure, which was legally allowed as an RM1, but he had to keep up with the rental licenses, which he did not.
And then here's the bill which changed the zoning, I believe, in 2018 from RM1 to RSA5.
So you can see this was originally RM1, and now it is RSA5.
And then maps to the area.
While our property is RSA5, there are other zoning classifications nearby, like CMX1, RM1.
uh so that it's not out of character plus the other uses which are you know multi-family in
nature nearby uh that's a map of the area then photograph so this is oh and the other thing i
forgot to mention is he's going to do an enclosure too in the front where he's going to store the
trash you can see it was previously there i think it got all dilapidated and and broken up but
They're going to do, like, basically like a trash caddy area where the fence will open up and, you know, they will be able to put the trash out during trash day.
But, you know, here's the window or the door for the lower level.
Again, no tenant has direct access to it.