The politically connected owner of the Mission District’s only rooftop bar may have to start paying $250 fines daily after city planners determined that the bar at Medjool violated zoning laws.
The fines could start as early as today, according to the Chronicle, which reported that bar owner and Gavin Newsom campaign donor Gus Murad’s request for a review by Planning Director John Rahaim had been rejected yesterday.
The legality of the bar came into question in early February, after a typo in the planning documents for another Murad project granted the owner/developer an extra 20 feet of building height, and the mayor vetoed a Board of Supervisors vote to correct the error.
Murad has so far been mum on the topic, but he responded to the Chronicle through spokesman PJ Johnston, who said Murad has documents, “going back five years,” proving the bar’s legality. He also played the economy card:
On a street with 81 vacant storefronts, Medjool has employed more than 60 employees for more than five years, with legal approvals in place. Attacking a small Mission District business in this manner, in this economy, is unconscionable.
As far as we know, Medjool is the only bar of its kind in the city, though it has a certain reputation that has always kept us from becoming a regular. [City Insider/SF Gate via Mission Mission]
[Photo: Via H E R R E/flickr]
