A judge ruled Thursday that a residential motel in San Francisco’s Marina District must comply with nuisance laws and pay the city $156,000, according to City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office.
Herrera sued the owners and management of the Bridge Motel, located at 2524 Lombard St., in October 2009, citing “an egregious pattern of housing, fire and health code violations.”
A San Francisco Superior Court judge today approved an injunction forcing the hotel’s owners and management to fix the problems and placing the hotel under court jurisdiction for the next five years, according to the city attorney’s office.
“For too long, the Bridge Motel has been a renegade operation – a public nuisance to Marina District residents and hotel tenants,” Herrera said in a statement.
Between April 2009 and January 2010, police were called to the motel 91 times for alleged illegal activity including fights, trespassing, domestic violence, people with knives and guns, grand theft, and assault, according to the city attorney’s office.
The lawsuit prompted the owners to bring the property into compliance with state and local laws, but the injunction approved today will ensure that the motel will continue to comply with the criminal, building and housing codes, city attorney spokesman Jack Song said.
“They’ve fixed the problems. The issues have been abated, but the court injunction ensures that for the next five years, it requires the owners to comply with all the state and local laws,” Song said.
The $156,000 payment to the city is for the various penalties and code violations the motel accrued, Song said.
The motel received at least 31 notices of violation and six orders of abatement by the city’s building, fire and public health departments over the past six years, according to the city attorney’s office.
Neither the owners nor operators of the motel were immediately available for comment today.
The owners of the Bridge Motel are identified in the lawsuit as Tarunkumar, Vinodkumar, Sangita and Vyomesh Patel. The former leasers and operators, Mohammed and Nasir Shaikh, were also listed as defendants in the suit.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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