the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel uh mr mr mr
Karakoff. Did you hear my testimony? I did. The photographs that I showed of the interior,
did you take those? I did, yes. And that they took those photographs in connection with your
measuring, conducting measurements and site visit for the purpose of drawing the site plan and floor
plans? Correct. Based upon your expertise and experience as an architect, what observations
did you make about the structure and whether it may have been converted at some point prior to now
from a single family to a triflex? I did not see any evidence of conversion.
I didn't observe. There's no interior stair that would, you know, indicate a single family use,
being able to communicate between floors. The only accesses are through an exterior
deck structure and exterior doors to each floor. There's separate electric meters in each unit
that I observed. And all the plumbing bathrooms are stacked. So it read to me as if it was built
that way. Thank you. Could you remain available in case any of the board or members of the public
have questions for you? Could Mr. Meliseka raise his hand?
I think no one by that name.
you don't see okay you're an officer of the court we will take you you're an officer of the court
yes well do you have anybody else uh i do not i do i do not have anybody else in
do you have somebody yes chair he just raised his hand and i will okay thank you
you're welcome he has been promoted
good morning
good morning sir
i'm sorry is it working now i'm sorry could you please state your name and spell for the
yes sir it's james j-a-m-e-s last name melaseka m-e-l-a-s-e-c-c-a you swear or firm to tell
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
truth told truth nothing but the truth yes sir could you turn your
Yes, sir.
Could you turn your video on, please?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Melisaka, are you the managing member of Pathfinder Homes, LLC?
That is correct, sir.
And you own 1224 Rear East Columbia Avenue?
Yes, sir.
You purchased it for Mr. Dowd in 2004, in March of 2024?
Yes, sir.
And at the time you purchased it, you became aware that the existing use was not permitted?
There were no permits?
Correct.
And for that reason, did you ask Mr. Dowd to confirm his use of the property in the 20 years he owned it since 2005?
Correct.
Okay. And is it your intention to make this legal so that you can go ahead and get a rental license and, if necessary, make changes to make sure it's safe for the existing tenants?
Yes, sir.
And the existing tenants are there from leases that Mr. Dowd had created with them prior to your purchasing?
That is correct.
And those leases extend into 2026?
That is correct.
And will you work with those tenants to introduce improvements if necessary so that their occupancy is not interrupted?
Yes, sir.
Do you adopt, did you hear my testimony earlier in this hearing?
I did.
Was it truthful?
Yes, sir.
And you adopted as your own?
Absolutely.
Counselors 1224 is separate owner.
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
Yes, I have a question about the part of the walkway that's not covered. I understand there's an easement, but what are the precautions to make sure that the tenants of 1224R don't really, like, utilize the rest of that backyard space for the owners at 1224?
I don't know how to answer that.
Can you go back to the bike plan?
Yes, James.
Yes, yeah, that'd be helpful to see that.
you know the board the site plan or the photograph site plan so there's okay so there's
the photograph and then here's the alley that extends after the covered alley that's open
extending to the stairs and then the this is looking back at that and I can make that a little
larger so this extends this is going down the stair and then they have this open alley
that goes to the closed alley. And you can see some trash bins here behind this.
I guess this is behind 1222.
Is that a fence between 1224 there? Yes. That's a fence behind 1224?
Yes, it's a fence in the rear yard. It encloses the rear yard of 1224 right here.
And so I guess the other issue is it looks like part of this walkway and part of the stairwell is actually on 1226's property.
Yes, that was pointed out during the meeting.
I mean, that's not really a zoning issue.
In Pennsylvania, the law changed a few years ago.
so it may be the 1224 rear either has a claim for adverse possession or it may have been done
by permission which would have given them no right to to any uh not needed it's not needed
right it's not yeah the landings are very generous i mean you could have a very narrow you could have
a more narrow access uh the the deck the the landing on the second and third floor is almost
like a deck it's got to be yeah that is and there's no bring let me bring up that uh site
plan so you can see that and then were the tenants did the tenants attend the community
meeting or the rco meeting i don't know it was a virtual meeting i did meet each of them uh when i
went uh getting signatures each each of each unit is occupied by one person and none of them have a
car right now current car knock all right any other questions yes how long have these tenants
been in this property i don't know their leases were dated in in i think january of 24 i don't
know if they were renewals uh or they were first-time tenants jim do you do you know the
answer to that um yeah i believe mr dowd told me that they were all moved in in 2019
Okay, and did the former owner of this property have
And did the former owner of this property have rental licenses for these units?
I see.
And when you purchased this property in 2024, you knew that, correct?
Yes, Mr. Malasaka.
I should go on.
When Mr. Malasaka and the deed, this part of the package, will confirm this, there were two parcels being sold.
12-22 and 12-24 rear, which would share a party wall in the rear. So there was one of two properties. 12-24 is a larger property, which is one building east of 12-24. And that is connected at the rear.
So this was kind of like part of the transaction.
It was listed as a sale for both properties.
So he bought both, and now he's trying to fix, which may have existed since 1915.
He's trying to do the right thing.
And did you have title insurance when his properties were purchased?
Did you finance this purchase, Jim?
Yeah, we have title insurance to the title company.
Yes, ma'am.
And as part of the title insurance process,
did they advise you of the permissible uses for these properties?
I'm sorry, advise you?
Of the permissible uses for these properties.
I don't know that the title company did.
Mr. Melisaka knew, and he called me at the time he was getting ready
to complete the purchase.
He said, what do I do?
And I said, well, all you can do is get the current owner to verify under oath what the use has been for the last 20 years.
And then you have to legalize.
You have to get permission to legalize the use, which is what we're trying to do today.
OK. And then my other question, did you get a city certification for these properties, which will tell you what the permissible uses for a property are?
i don't know did you get a city cert did the seller give you a city certification
i don't believe so no because i didn't get the leases until literally the day of closing
okay okay so it's the seller's obligation under philadelphia as you know uh miss miss gaston
to supply but there's no lack of information here mr malasaka knew before he purchased it
that one of the two properties was affected by this problem
that you have to deal with.
Well, I guess my, okay, here's my problem.
I don't understand how we even got into a situation
where you're building a house and it's totally landlocked.
There's no street frontage of any sort or variety for this property.
I don't, I don't understand how that ever happened, even in 1915.
Well, I'm, I'm having a real problem with that.
And then my other problem, you know, and you can, you can, my other problem is with these,
with these stairs, which, you know, so, so presumably you can enter into this first unit
for the front door, and then you have to go through these alleys and what have you to
get to uh what are purported to be entrances to the second and third floor i don't there's not a
front door entrance either right for the first floor probably it's all from now i think it's all
it's all there yeah i really you know i don't understand how you how a property could even
have been built like this, even in 1915. I just find it to be amazing. And then that
in 2005, it was purchased. Knowing all of this and no effort was taken then to start to address
these issues i i just so i just have to assume that for um the entire history of this property
it has been it's not even non-conforming it's just it's it's not proper in any way or shape
or form i don't i don't understand and then we have the additional issue of that there may be
some kind of issue with respect to the deeded lot and whether these stairs encroach in some way on the other.
And whether these stairs encroach in some way on another property.
And we can't get permission to allow something that's not necessarily on the property that's in front of us.
I'm having real problems with this.
Bill, you want to respond?
Yeah, if I please briefly. So the city didn't have a zoning code, as you know, until 1933. So this is an existing parcel. And in 1932, you could have built anything you wanted on it. You could have built a blacksmith shop. In 1933, that changed.
and until 1962 the uses were simply commercial industrial and residential
you know we didn't get into duplexes and multi-family until after 62
this is if we take the office of property assessment record at face value
this building has been there for 115 110 years
um the neighbors that i spoke to had no problem signing this um in fact uh the uh 12 30 a woman
who has lived there for over 40 years liked the current tenants and disliked some of the
former tenants she said the current tenants are nice people um uh the the tenant at 12 24
whose alley is next to her building in her rear yard says no problem with it i'm not saying it's
not an anomaly but after 115 years mr melisaka is coming forward saying i'm going to do the right
thing now when he files his application for a rental license i believe he's going to have to
get a certificate of occupancy and he's going to have to show the detail that the fire separation
is adequate, that the window sizes are adequate, that the fire alarm is adequate, so that it is
safe for the current tenants. That's in everybody's interest, to make sure that it's safe for the
current tenants. I don't think Mr. Malasaka should be disparaged because he did it. He's coming
forward to legalize. Many owners apparently before him looked the other way, and that was wrong.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Is there any other questions from the board?
I need to slide down to the site plan. I just, just slide down to the site plan.
I'm sorry.
Just slide down to the site.
Oh, yeah. There?
I'm just trying to, I was just trying to understand that this is a completely landlocked parcel in the back of this other property.
Yes. The legal description makes the point of beginning, I believe it's this corner here, is the point of beginning of the legal description of the lot. And then it's 18 feet 6 by 29, 10 and a half inches.
And so legally they'd have, what, adverse possession to the alley and the tunnel?
I understand from Mr. Melisaka that 1226 recently sold and that the former owner lived there for more than 40 years.
As I said, if the area of the deck or landing on the second and third floor, which extends over this area,
If it was done with permission, then if the current owner wanted to discontinue that permission, remove that permission, they'd have to make the landing narrower.
If it was not done with permission and it was done without permission, then there would be a claim of adverse possession if it was necessary.
I suspect based on my observing
it's been there a long time
there's no indication that that deck was built recently
or those landings were built recently
if you look at the photograph of the staircase
you can see
that it's been there for a while
thank you
questions from our attorney Hillary Emerson
not at this time
What's your comments from the from our audience or virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, there are two hands up.
The first one is Justin Epperson will appear in a few minutes.
Okay. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello, can you hear me?
Hi, yes. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hello, sir. My name is Justin Epperson. I'm the owner of 1224 Columbia in the front.