How to Find Legal Lot Size to Build

[Marc Possoff]

Hi I’m currently completely renovating a house in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia which is going good. 

I also own a vacant lot not too far from the house which I inherited. It’s supposed to be 14x51 / 714 sq ft. The lot sits between 2 row houses. I went to measure the lot this morning and the measurements aren’t coming up. My measurements from the end of the 2 houses is less than 14’. 

I then did some Google-ing and found a site https://atlas.phila.gov/ I put the address of the my in and it’s saying perimeter 126 ft, Area 681 sq ft. 

When I input the address for the 2 houses where the lot sits between in https://atlas.phila.gov/ 

House on right: Perimeter 128ft Area 731

House on left: Perimeter 127ft Area 692

When I did some other research, it’s saying that all the lots on the street are 714 sq ft, 14x51.

I measured a bunch of houses that were attached together and they are pretty the same size. But doesn’t seem like my lot would be the same size.

Am I missing something? And how do I find the legal size of the lot? Thanks!