By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
By his count, Jamie Sofroney spoke to dozens of neighbors in Townsends Inlet to find out what they thought should be done with the 120-year-old house he owns at 8505 Landis Avenue.
He considered three options for the property: Renovate the old house, tear it down to build a new single-family home or redevelop the site for a mixed-use project combining commercial space and condominiums.
“Nobody, nobody, wants to see more commercial space. They were very adamant about that,” Sofroney stressed of the neighbors.
With neighborhood sentiment clearly opposed to commercial development, he is moving ahead with plans to build a new three-story home in place of the old house that overlooks Landis Avenue at the corner of 85th Street.
Dating to 1900, the modest, two-story home was built only 18 years after real estate visionary Charles K. Landis founded Sea Isle City as a Venice, Italy-inspired beach resort.
Sofroney toyed with the idea of saving the old house, but the renovations would have been costly. He explained that extensive reconstruction would have triggered a requirement for him to elevate the home to comply with current flood standards.
“It is an old house. It would need to be renovated, but it just wouldn’t work. It’s too small and would have to be raised,” he said in an interview Friday.
Instead, Sofroney plans to build a new three-story, single-family home that will front Landis Avenue. There will be three spaces of off-street parking for the house along 85th Street.
The neighbors had made it clear that parking is a high priority for Townsends Inlet, Sofroney said. Like other sections of Sea Isle, Townsends Inlet explodes with tourists during the summer vacation season and parking is at a premium.
“This should enhance the neighborhood and help to alleviate the parking problem,” Sofroney said of his project.
Sofroney, a local real estate agent, won’t live in the new house when it is completed. He intends to put it on the market.
In the meantime, Sofroney is seeking approval from Sea Isle’s zoning board to build the house. He needs a zoning variance to build a residential structure in an area zoned for commercial development.
Sofroney has sent a letter to homeowners in the surrounding neighborhood inviting them to attend the zoning board’s March 2 meeting to show their support for his project.
“I am asking for your help,” he wrote in the letter. “My intention is to ask the board for a use variance to allow me to build a single family home on this lot and not a large mixed use commercial project that would be permitted on this site.”
“A new single family home will create less density, less building coverage and less height. It will create additional off street parking,” he added.
Although he would be free to build a mixed-use project in place of the old house, Sofroney said he doesn’t want to go against the wishes of the neighbors.
Zoning regulations would allow him to build a commercial project up to 40 feet high and without any property setbacks, Sofroney said. Such a project on an undersized lot would be a “monstrosity” because it would detract from the residential character of the surrounding neighborhood, he added.
“There’s not one person that I spoke to in the neighborhood that I could find who wanted commercial development,” he said. “We’re trying to create something that works better functionally for the site.”
The existing old house served as a private residence for more than 90 years after it was first built. It was converted into an office for the former T.I. Realty company in 1992, but has remained vacant in recent years.
At some point, the city’s zoning regulations were changed for commercial development in the area where the old home is located. That is why Sofroney needs a “use variance” to build a new home in a commercial district.
Hoping to rally community support, Sofroney believes his proposal for a single-family residence would be a far better option than commercial construction.
“Another commercial property in this area and on this small lot is just ridiculous in my opinion and would add to more problems in general,” he wrote in his letter to the neighbors.
