Medjool, Strike 2

Excellent writeup by Mission Loc@l on Medjool’s latest issue — 9 of the 33 units in the hostel are supposed to be SROs (low-income single residence units) and shockingly, Gus Murad never filed the required SRO reports.  Innocent error? Well, it looks like there aren’t any SROs.  Guess that’s one way to get around the paperwork.

Also, ol’ Gus got sent an interesting letter by the Planning Department on his illegal rooftop bar — apparently he has two weeks to shut it down or appeal.

Craig Nikitas of the Planning Department said he looked into a complaint that Elements was not abiding by its residential hotel requirements several years ago. [Mission Loc@l found documents related to investigations into complaints at Elements, but none regarding SRO rooms.]

Nikitas said that when he looked at the guest registry while he was there, it appeared to him that the nine rooms were, in fact, being operated as residential hotel rooms.

And then he noticed the roof deck.

“We’ve had an enforcement case against the roof deck for years,” he said, adding that a letter saying the bar was illegal and needed to be removed was sent recently to Murad, who has about two weeks to shut it down or appeal.

UPDATE: A spokesman for Medjool said “all the recent attention from the press and seemingly sudden interest in enforcement is ‘unusual’ and ‘curious.'”(Via Eater SF)