Owners of the Bridge Motel now under court order to comply with nuisance laws, pay the City $156,000
SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 10, 2011)—A San Francisco Superior Court judge has approved an injunction negotiated by City Attorney Dennis Herrera to end a two-year legal battle with the Bridge Motel, a Marina District residential hotel in that has been a magnet for criminal and nuisance activities including violence, drugs, and other illegal activities. The embattled establishment had also been the subject of dozens of complaints about substandard housing conditions. The injunction, which puts the owners of the Bridge Motel under Court jurisdiction for the next five years, requires the owners to comply fully with all local and state laws, and adequately maintain the building and its surroundings. The owners have also agreed to pay the City $156,000.
“For too long, the Bridge Motel has been a renegade operation—a public nuisance to Marina District residents and hotel tenants,” Herrera said. “Today’s injunction requires the owners to correct all violations of state and local law to protect health and safety. I will work closely with the San Francisco Police, Fire, Building and Public Health Departments to ensure that the owners of the Bridge Motel continue to comply, and that they act as good community citizens.”
Herrera sued the Bridge Motel in October 2009, detailing an egregious pattern of housing, fire and health code violations by the establishment’s owners and previous operators, who repeatedly defied corrective orders from City building and housing inspectors. Dozens of Notices of Violation and several Orders of Abatement went virtually unheeded prior to the lawsuit, according to the City Attorney’s previous pleadings. The lawsuit prompted the owners to bring the property into compliance with state and local laws. Today’s injunction requires that the owners prohibit the sale and distribution of drugs on the property, keep a watchful eye on criminal activity by tenants, make immediate contact with the San Francisco Police Department upon receiving information that criminal activity is occurring on or around the property, increase security measures by maintaining security gates and locks and working security cameras, and immediately correct all outstanding building and housing code violations.
Named as defendants in Herrera’s lawsuit are Tarunkumar, Vinodkumar, Sangita and Vyomesh Patel, as trustees of various family trusts that own the property at 2524 Lombard Street, and Mohammed and Nasir Shaikh, who formerly leased and operated the Bridge Motel. The case is City and County of San Francisco and People of the State of California v. Tarunkumar K. Patel et al., San Francisco Superior Court Case No. CGC-09-493770, filed Oct. 26, 2009.
Related Documentation
- PDF of the Bridge Motel presskit, which includes the stipulated injunction and settlement agreement