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Daniela Mason
5 years ago
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6 April 19, 2018 San Francisco Board of Appeals Re: Appeal No ; Chory v. ZA Beach Street Appeal of Planning Department Permit Suspension Request Building Permit Application Number Dear President Fung and Members of the Board: In 2015, we bought our first home. We found a vacant duplex (two flats, one on the first floor (1627 Beach Street) and one on the second floor and third floors (1629 Beach Street)) on Beach Street with another young family. We confirmed the two units had been owner occupied and that there were no evictions. We are not real estate or code experts, we just wanted to raise our families on Beach Street. Our plan was to convert the two units to condos, which we need to do to be able to get a bank to refinance our mortgage, and to perform needed property upgrades, including a seismic retrofit, a new roof, significant water and energy efficiency improvements and most importantly bringing the entire building up to current building code standards. At the advice of our consultants, we filed a building permit to bring the property into code compliance and allow us to convert the units to condos. We hired Patrick DuGarry, owner of DuGarry Construction, who was working towards completion of the permits, when he passed away suddenly due to a heart attack before the work was completed in November of last year. After some time, we engaged with the rest of the subcontractors to close out the work, when the permit was suspended by the Planning Department, catching us by surprise and putting our homes and financing at risk. We have been scrambling to find the best path forward as we received news of the NOV while Steve and I were at my wedding and the Lathen s were in London dealing with the passing of Jeremy s father.

7 We have continued to get mixed advice from professionals in the city and have become a bit wary of engaging anyone further after our experiences thus far. We are not here because we are kicking tenants out of housing, but simply trying to be able to continue to live in our homes, updated for both current code and incremental safety, including a voluntary seismic retrofit. I have reached out directly to the Planning Department to bring them up to speed on the details of our case but they indicated they could not do anything outside of the appeal process. We are writing here to kindly ask that you reverse the permit suspension and allow us to work with the Planning Department and DBI to proceed with the work that was already underway and permitted, that would be bringing the building up to code for condo conversion and a necessary refinancing. After purchasing the property in 2015, we intended to begin the condo conversion process immediately. However, we didn t have the money available to perform the work necessary and process the conversion, and we unfortunately had to deal with the sudden death of Steve s father, a few months after moving in. This delayed us almost a year. During that time, San Francisco adopted a new law that treated the removal of unauthorized dwelling units the same as authorized units. We hired Leo McFadden, a code consultant who was the Condo Conversion Inspector for DBI for many years on the recommendation from our lawyers, Sirkin Law. While this was more expensive, we were advised SirkinLaw was the go-to counsel for all things TIC, and we wanted to make sure we used the experts available to ensure we did things the right way In connection with the condo conversion application, DBI inspected the property and informed us there might be a dwelling unit on the ground floor level behind the garage. Even though the new law and a potential dwelling unit would make this difficult, we purchased the unit knowing it had

8 been approved by Planning for a merger of the dwelling units in (Exhibit A.) This approval is still valid. Mr. McFadden got us a permit to comply with the Building Department Report and remove the dwelling unit. This is the permit that the Planning Department seeks to suspend. (Exhibit B.) That same day Mr. McFadden paid an extra fee to cancel our approved permit for the dwelling unit merger - which would have allowed us to remove the dwelling unit. Now we find ourselves in an impossible situation where we have a Planning Department approval of the dwelling unit merger, but are unable to proceed with the merger. Our intention in this process is to maintain the two family-sized dwelling units at the property, and perform necessary safety upgrades on a building constructed in 1935 in the Marina District.. To do so, we need to convert the units to condos in order to obtain a reasonable and affordable mortgage. We will otherwise be forced to sell and move out of the neighborhood, while a new owner could potentially convert the property into an enormous single-family home, displacing both the owners of 1629 and the family of five at We certainly understand the intent of the updated laws and the city s need for more affordable housing, but we do not believe the law was intended to force families out of the homes they have built and continue to build their lives. Our neighbors fully support our efforts. The Lathen s coordinated landscaping of the backyard with a neighbor, and invested to make it a better area for both of their children to share. They will appear at the hearing to support us and/or provide letters of support. We know of no opposition. Though this has become a difficult and complicated problem, with the assistance of this Board and City staff, these dwelling units and the property can be preserved. We ask for the Board s help to keep both of our families living in our current homes in San Francisco.

9 Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully, Kate and Jeremy Lathen (1627 Beach Street) Greg Chory and Steve Michella (1629 Beach Street)

10 EXHIBIT A

16 EXHIBIT B

Can eviction history disqualify buildings from being converted to condominiums?

Can eviction history disqualify buildings from being converted to condominiums? Condominium Conversion in San Francisco (02/03/09) By D. Andrew Sirkin SIRKIN PAUL ASSOCIATES 250 Montgomery Street, Suite 1200 San Francisco, CA 94104 (415) 738-8545 www.andysirkin.com What is a condominium?