And there are additional addresses of some other individuals who are close by as well.
Then we reviewed, we'll review the maps of the area and photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice.
I will say it wasn't that, it was intended, it was intended well, but, you know, it was on Juneteenth.
Like, we were hesitant to even meet then.
We said that, like, you know, it's a federal holiday.
you know obviously it's a special holiday as well and we wanted you know the communities
you know um focus on this project um but you know i don't know if all the people who are interested
in this project came for you know pro and con but we had it because you know we were asked to come
and um you know we didn't want to insult the community group either by um saying that we're
not going to come to a meeting that was asked of us to come to but i'm just telling you it was on
Juneteenth. So we reviewed, you know, our plans and drawings and, you know, we have, you know,
our meeting notice and, you know, we have our application for appeal, our deeds to the property
and our certificate of tax clearance. And, you know, again, at the conclusion of my presentation,
I would ask that Mark, the owner's representative, virtually raise his hand and be sworn in. And then
I'm going to go over some of the materials I received earlier today regarding some people
who are in opposition, I want to go through those and answer that as well. And I'm assuming
some of those members of the community are online as well. And I would like to ask them some
questions maybe as well. So the notice of refusal, again, all we're looking to do is put a duplex
here. It's a rather large lot of 1,305 square feet. You know, again, if, you know, if you look
at, we'll look at the materials, but like there's a lot of multifamily nearby, which is not
surprising given we're essentially a block away from the broad street line. We're not looking to
from the Broad Street line. We're not looking to extend the building structure in any way.
extend the building structure in any way.
We're just trying to, again, take a dilapidated property and completely redo it. It's rather
expensive given the condition of the property. And we're looking to put two units here
where, you know, you've seen a lot of multifamily nearby. So again, we had the meeting. Ultimately,
it was a 7-7 vote. It's, you know, self-explanatory. The comments were this, you know,
in a positive way, you know, I think the community acknowledged that the building and the property
is rather large in nature. And, you know, they appreciated the fact of having two units, you
know, having, you know, in this part of the neighborhood, multifamily, you know, is good
to help support the commercial corridor on Broad Street.
The negatives were this.
I think, you know, I think we're being blamed.
My client's being blamed for the state and condition of the property.
A lot of the issues pre-exist in my client.
My client has tried to responsibly fix them during, you know, the make safe process.
You know, they're, you know, again, whenever you're doing construction,
there's debris and dirt, things like that.
And, you know, I think there's been frustration with some of the neighbors regarding that.
My client didn't start it. And again, I'll have him testify to this.
But my understanding and my client will hopefully confirm this is that there was no work done before the make safe permit was issued.
And there was no work done after the violations were issued in February of 2024.
for I asked him I said ceased operations you know let's focus on getting the zoning approved and
then we can go from there but that's you know that's you know and so a lot of the comments had
to do with my client doing illegal work and electric and plumbing again you'll see from the
redfin listing my client didn't do the electric and plumbing someone else did someone before my
client so I think that's what happens sometimes when you buy a compromised property because if
you look at this and I did update my materials from when I submitted five days before the hearing
but when I heard you know issues about you know you know about you know legal work being done in
there I looked at the listing it says large South Billy partially renovated drywall property some
plumbing electrical complete right that's the advertisement that's not my client that's someone
who my client purchased from and then again to do the responsible thing there's a lot of work to be
done on the outside, especially with the facade, my client got a make-safe permit in September
of 2023, a few months after purchasing the property, and he did work on it. Now, you'll see
that from, you know, I highlighted that the numbers in red are the amount of units within
these properties. So, you can see, like, basically, almost all the properties that surround us
are multifamily in nature. So you have a two-family, a two-family, a two-family, a two-family,
a four, a three is next to us, and to the right of that is another three-family dwelling.
Again, these are rather large building structures and rather large lots, so it's not our character
to have multifamily here. A few years ago, I appeared in front of the board for 1317 South
15th Street under calendar number 36536 in May of 2019, where the board similarly granted
multifamily use for a building structure of a similar size. So again, all I did was I looked
on Atlas. The properties that I'm showing you here are all based on active rental licenses.
You know, we see all the time that individuals sometimes use properties illegally. Our office doesn't condone that. But I also don't want to show the board something where, oh, it's a two unit, but yeah, it's done illegally. So when I when I show this board something, it's based on like documented evidence that it's legal.
So again, for 1240 South 15th Street, that's a two unit. 1241 South 15th Street, that's a two unit. 1248 South 15th Street, that's a three unit. 1250 South 15th Street, that's a three unit.
So, again, you see all nearby are multifamily in nature. And then community support. Again, this is someone who's not a near neighbor, not a near neighbor, not a near neighbor. But then I think I organized it first, not near neighbors. But they're within the effect. They're in the East Point Breeze section of Philadelphia.
but then you see some
you'll see a lot of these
are near neighbors
and i think you can't see it because let's see if i can change that i know that oh there it is
and I think you can't see it because
i didn't see on my screen but you'll see that these are near neighbors from here
so i i specifically marked them on there to note that like we cross-referenced the city
planning's addresses with the address where we had people sign and again i i have my clients
reach out to the community, not just generally, but to be honest about it and say, go reach out
to the people who are notified of the community meeting, especially when you have a meeting
that's, you know, you know, that was scheduled legitimately, but, you know, on a date where
maybe some people are not paying attention. And then maps in the area. Here we are. We're on 15th
Street, again, between Farrow and Wharton. We're not that far off the Broad Street line here.
And then photographs of the property. It's a very handsome or can be very handsome building facade,
a rather large building, a nice brownstone. This is notice of the community or proof of notice of
the hearing. And then this is South 15th Street to the right of the property, to the left of the
property, are plans and drawings. And again, what we're looking to do is two bi-levels. So we have
the first floor and lower level, which by the way, I think there was some indication that we
dug it out. My client did not do that. This is existing conditions, at least that we know,
that, you know, the work that we did was not to dig out the basement.
And then the other unit is the second and third floors.
And then the RCO meeting notice, again, was on June 19th at 6.30 p.m.
And then we emailed that notice to the relevant parties a few weeks beforehand.
And we showed that we sent the notice to 129 addresses.
This is proof of mailing to those addresses.
And then our application for appeal, along with the notice of refusal and the project information form, the deeds of property, and finally, the Certificate of Tax Clearance.
I would also like to show you the opposition.
So let's see what we got here.
So I guess let me let me introduce my clients to the board, and then maybe we'll go through that by and I'll ask some questions about the opposition.
So, Mark, can you virtually raise your hands?
Mark, last name and then L has been allowed to speak.
Hi, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
My name is Mark Lajani, first name M-A-R-K, last name L-A-H-I-J-A-N-I.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, yes.
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mark. First of all, for what I presented so far, you heard everything I had to state about that, right?
And is it true and correct?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
All right. So I wanted to show you, you know, and we went over this.
I think we received this today, the neighborhood opposition to multivariate unit variance for 1252 South 15th Street.
So, first of all, you canvassed the neighborhood for individuals who were close by.
And those were the, you know, those all those letters that we showed. Right.
Mark, you canvassed the neighborhood. Correct.
Those letters of support. OK.
And we've reviewed this neighborhood opposition we received today.
So there are a couple of items.
So first of all, it says, you know, you continued interior demolition and renovations.
You know, did you do any renovation work or interior demolition work prior to you getting the make safe permit?
And, you know, and you did get it.
Obviously, you got the permit for Maysave.
That's right.
Correct.
And did you do any basement excavation?
And did you remove any oil burner system or tank?
Okay. And when you did get the violation notice to state that, you know, maybe the work that you were doing, you know, after the make safe permit, after you completed that work, may have exceeded the scope of that, you stopped that work, right?
um may have exceeded the scope of that you stopped that work right correct okay and and
Correct.
the work that you did was you took like the the i guess the the the rotted wood that was inside of
your building and you you put in the rear yard and then eventually trashed it away right correct yes
yeah and then the only other work that you did and we'll go through the pictures
was you you repaved the backyard right correct okay let's see all right so then that's that
for you know what they stated and let's just go over the photos as well um this this you know
photo on the upper left shows the backyard of your property right right okay and the dirt was
like the dirt to level the backyard like the actual you know backyard so you can
re-cement the property yes correct for the backyard okay and then this was also in the
backyard at one point this is all the debris that was inside the house right for the wood
yes all the rotted wood correct yeah and the reason why you took it out was it was getting
moldy right all right very dangerous okay and then you know this is someone's property and
there is some some some construction debris here right correct there's a little piece of
one brick yes okay and then again you dealt with this you know unsafe work these are pictures i
I assume it was taken by one of the nearby neighbors, but like you see the building facades, you dealt with like, you know, correcting all the issues with the building facade, right?
Correct.
Yeah. And this pre-existed you, right?
And then this is stuff that was inside your property too. Like what's, what's a picture of this?
okay all right so that's just wood of like of a previous fence of some sort yes okay
yeah and then this is this is i guess the other side you did re-cement
your property right the backyard correct yes okay but that was and you you stopped any work
after you got a violation notice in February
2024. Correct. Okay. And then these
bricks here, that's based on the work that you did for the MakeSafe
permit, right? Correct. That's all for the MakeSafe.
Yeah. And you obviously, I don't know when this picture was taken, but you
subsequently removed those bricks after you did whatever brick work
you needed to do. That is correct. I think
those are the only pictures I have from them. So I'm going to
unshare my screen. And
I'd be more than happy to take any questions from the board. Alan, go back to that first
paragraph. There's a lot about L&I violations. Is that true? I mean,
did he receive them? I mean, so some of those violations
and again, let me just go, I want to go on Atlas just to confirm
the dates of them. We'll just confirm the dates. 12,
Some of these violations predate him.
So let's just go into it.
My computer is slow.
Let me check my phone.
Maybe it will be quicker.
But when I reviewed it, Mr. Chair, a lot of those violations preexisted him.
Some of them were overlapped by like a month where he just purchased the property.
He was in the process of getting the make-safe permit.
And then some of it was in February of 2024, where it was alleged that he was doing work that exceeded the scope of the make-safe permit, which he didn't.
But, like, instead of just, you know, he just then hired our law firm to actually just, you know, do the, instead of any, like, instead of focusing on any, like, you know, cleaning up of the property or such, he just decided to focus on the zoning aspects.
So, but, you know, I'm having problems.
I don't have, like, at least it's not working.
Questions from the board.
I have a few questions.
My first question is, this property was purchased in 2022, and I want to know, was it financed or was it a cash offer?
So for my records, the property was, I think, purchased in, again, June of 2023.
Is that right, Mark?
That's correct.
That's correct.
And was.
Was it a cash offer or was it financed?
I used most of my cash and I got a little financing.
And at the time of purchase, what was the zoning?
It was RSA 5.
The zoning has not changed over that period of time.
And then I just want to know specifically, what is the argument for hardship?