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Health & Fitness

Bobby Shrivers response to his vote to convert Apt to Hotel rooms

Wake-up Santa Monica Downtown and it's tourist are moving into your apartment/neighborhood and your rent controlled Apt is soon to be occupied by a tourist. And SMRR will do nothing to help you. 

What would you do if your Rent Controlled Apartment was granted a Hotel exemption and you got the BOOT so tourist could stay in the home you lived in for 25 or 35 years?

If you live in The Sovereign on 2nd and Washington, you should know the City is claiming it's a Hotel! 

Bobby Shrivers response to his vote to convert Apt to Hotel rooms. and my response back.
Dear Ms. Wilson-Hausle,
Thank you for your message, I’m sorry the hotel is disturbing you, but here are the facts: The Embassy opened at that location in 1927; the hotel use was grandfathered into the R-3 zone, which was established later. In 2000, half the hotel was converted into apartments, as part of an agreement with the city. In 2008, the building’s new owners told the city they were going to convert the apartments back to hotel rooms. 
To preserve rental housing, the city tried to stop them. But the owners sued the city, and the appellate court ruled that the owners had the right to convert the units. A 2010 settlement gave the remaining tenants four years to move out. The council unanimously approved this settlement to ensure that the tenants wouldn’t be evicted much sooner, which was likely to happen if the case went back to a trial court. Forgive me, as I fear I’m repeating what you have already been told, but that’s all there is to tell. We did the best we could, given the legal constraints.

Best,
Bobby

MY RESPONSE
Thursday 10:47am
FYI i have tracked down 3 Tenants who were present and spoke at the RCB meeting in 1980 when the Embassy was denied exemption as a hotel. All three lived there in 1979-1980 and are willing to testify it was an Apartment. And they had a association/group of tenant who worked together to protect the rights of the tenants. I find it appalling you are claiming it was a Hotel that converted 19 units into Apt in 2000. This new spin just fuels my fire.

Embassy/Palihouse Illegal Conversion Fact Sheet

*The Embassy Apartment conversion to full-scale Palihouse Hotel in an R3 residential neighborhood of Santa Monica is illegal. This illegal conversion and use sets a serious and dangerous precedence for both land use and renters rights in Santa Monica.

*1927 The Embassy Apartments were built. The 1927 building permit is for a Residential Apartment. The permit included the question: What type of business will operate in the building? The answer was: NONE. And at the time The Embassy was built in 1927 Property was zone residential, not commercial. Thus, the assertion it was built or operated, as a hotel is factually incorrect.

*1979 rent control is established.

*April 1980 the RCB denied the owner of The Embassy Apartments a Hotel Exemption based on the fact: The owner failed to provide evidence any units qualified as Hotel units. I am in contact with three tenants who spoke/testified at the hearing.

*All 38 units were registered with rent control and paid fees as residential Apartments for 20 years. This requires forms submitted under penalty of perjury that the units are used as residential occupancy. 

*All recorded sales with the county records office of the property are for a Residential Multifamily Apartments house. The new owner just recently had the parcel type changed to commercial but they purchased The Embassy as a Multifamily Residential building and parcel.

*There is evidence the Embassy was “illegally” renting a few units as hotel rooms. Done so without City authorization, a hotel business license or paying any Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) on and off for several years. This is in direct violation of the rent control laws after the Hotel Exemption was denied in 1980 and the Owner failed to appeal.

*The Embassy had NO business license to operate as a hotel until 2008 and in fact its business license was for residential use prior to that time. 

*A 1992 independent review for California Park and Recreation identifies The Embassy as an Elegant Apartment Building used as Residential. There is NO mention of Hotel use.

In 1995 an overlay was created that grandfather “Legally Existing Hotels” in the R3 zone in which The Embassy sits. There is no mention or inclusion of the Embassy in the staff report in support of the overlay. In fact, the report identifies the hotels in the overlay zone and the Embassy is not one of them. No notice was given to any property owners or tenants located near the Embassy. The overlay does not apply The Embassy because it never “legally operated” as a Commercial Business Hotel. 

*In 1998 the City Planning Dept. sent the Embassy a letter to stop the use of residential units as Hotel rooms.

*In 1998 The Embassy Owners Attorney provide a statement that only 6 units were used for shot-term Hotel rentals. 

*In 2000 without public notice or a hearing the Embassy Owners and the City entered a settlement agreement (see attached). The 2000 agreement was the first step that slowly and illegally eroded away the residential status of the Embassy Apartments. The settlement included a provision to allow an illegal conversion of residential units. The compromise was 19 hotel units and 19 rent controlled units. NOTE: I believe this agreement violated the Brown Act.

*In 2003 the Embassy’s application to become a Historical Landmark it acknowledges its “Mixed Use” Character and argued the Embassy was primarily residential. And they supplied The State of California “HISTORIC RESOURCE INVETORY“ of the Embassy property. It was prepared in 1992 and identified the significance and evaluation of the Embassy property as an Elegant Apartment Building…..

The Attorney representing the Embassy included the following….
More particularly the interior of the Embassy generally consists of residential and guest unit corridors support spaces for the Embassy personnel and a lobby area that (unlike some hotel lobby areas) is not regularly open to the general public The Embassy lacks the type of public spaces commonly associated with hotels (as opposed to apartment hotels) such as restaurants banquet facilities, meeting rooms or a lobby that serves as a public gathering place. For the privacy of the Embassy’s Residents and guests, and in recognition of its mixed-use character as both a resident-serving and a visitor-serving facility the Embassy does not allow the general public access to any of its interior spaces.”

Thus, the Embassy abandoned all rights to run a full-scale hotel with a lobby lounge, restaurant, bar, and valet service.

*In 2008, the Embassy owners sued the City of Santa Monica to invalidate its 2000 settlement with the City so they could evict the tenants under the Ellis Act. 

*In 2010 the court on appeal invalidated the 2000 agreement. However, this finding by the court does not give the City or RCB the right to disregard the SMCC laws in order to settle a lawsuit. And that is exactly what the City and RCB did. 

In total disregard of SMCC zoning laws they entered into another settlement agreement that I believe is illegal. The 2011 agreement violates basic zoning laws to protect neighborhoods from illegal commercial hotel business expansion in residential zones. The 2011 SA also violates the Brown Act as there was no public notice or hearing on the matter. Thus no due process as required by law.

The RCB failed to follow basic requirement for hotel exemptions under Chapter 12 of the RCB laws. And, no effective Notice of this drastic change in use and mode of use of the property were given to the surrounding residents or property owners. RCB denied the Hotel Exemption issue in 1980 and the Owners failed to appeal the decision.

*2013 The City now claims the Embassy is a “permitted use” and the Hotel can expand and intensify its operation with Valet service, a restaurant café and bar for patrons and their guest. Effectively, destroying the peace quiet and enjoyment of the R3 neighborhood and eroding all SMRR has done for Renters Rights. 
The illegal conversion of the Embassy Apartments cannot and should not be ignored. Respecting our City zoning laws and protecting Renters Rights is the just and right thing to do.

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