Despite the strident objections of his neighbors, Kelvin Sanders, the owner of a large three-decker at 96 Milton Ave. that inspectors determined was operating as an illegal lodging house, is seeking to convert the building into a 24-unit lodging residence.

Inspectional Services Department (ISD) officials say Sanders’s architect filed a permit application on Dec. 15 to change the occupancy to a lodging house. For code reasons, ISD rejected the application, prompting the Sanders team to file an appeal with the Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA) on Jan. 9. Officials expect the next hearing will be on Feb. 28.

The Dorchester Unified Neighborhood (DUN) civic group was formed last year in response to the revelation that a number of moderate- to high-risk sex offenders were living in Sanders’s building at the corner of Stockton Street and Milton Avenue.  The occupants, including at least seven Level Three (high-risk) individuals and an undetermined number of lower level offenders, initially prompted the nearby residents’ concerns in early fall 2016.

Faced with little communication from the property owner and confirmation that the building was packed with 18 residents, apparently funneled in through shelters and veterans programs unaware that the property was not a licensed boarding house, the opposition asserted that any use for the building other than its given purpose as a three-family residence was illegal.

Civic group founder and president Dawn Barrett, who lives with her young sons in an abutting home, has spearheaded neighborhood investigation into, and opposition to, the way the property’s designation has been handled.

She and other DUN members circulated petitions in person and online in anticipation of the city’s legal actions against Sanders. “As community residents and homeowners with children and loved ones to care for,” Barrett wrote on a change.org petition in December, “my neighbors and I are worried about the number of people currently living in the illegal boarding house and concerned about how a boarding house could affect the character of the neighborhood along with possible safety issues in our residential zone.”

The city has taken Sanders to housing court for code violations after ISD officials found in October that the house was inappropriately being used as a boarding house, despite the appropriate use being a standard three-family. An initial arraignment on that matter took place on Tues., Jan. 10, with the next date set for Feb. 13.

But the Sanders application for a lodging house permit is likely to mean the housing court hearing will be continued until after the zoning board hearing on Feb. 28. According to ISD spokesman Lisa Timberlake, “Once an owner files a zoning appeal, it effectively stays further enforcement under the building and zoning code because the owner is diligently pursuing legalization of the occupancy to correct our violation.”

According to the documents filed with the zoning board under his Last Layer Realty, LLC, Sanders plans to remodel the building with seven bedrooms on the top two main floors, six on the first floor, and then add an additional three bedrooms to the basement. Each floor would have one shared bathroom and a kitchen space.

“This use would not be detrimental to the neighborhood because the use is consistent with other uses in the neighborhood,” the application reads.

Although abutting properties and much of the surrounding area is zoned for two-family residential, there is an apartment building across the street at 95 Milton Ave. According to city land records, that building is the sole exception to the either two- or three-family zoning in the immediate area.

DUN has scheduled a meeting for Wed., Jan. 25, at Boston International High School (100 Maxwell St.) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The meeting agenda says that Sanders and his attorney, Neil Kreuzer, will present their plans for conversion and answer questions.