Please send copies of all letters to GVSHP

232 East 11th Street, NY NY 10003

or (fax) 212/475-9582

or e-mail: gvshp@gvshp.org

DATE

Hon. Meenakshi Srinivasan, Chair
New York City Board of Standards and Appeals
40 Rector Street
New York, NY 10006
via fax to 212-788-8769
via e-mail – go to www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mailbsa.html

re: Appeal of DOB decision re: 246 Spring Street, Manhattan

Dear Chair Srinivasan:

I write to express my strong support for the appeal contesting the Department of Building’s (DOB) decision to issue building permits for 246 Spring Street, Manhattan, the ‘Trump SoHo Condo-Hotel,’ for the following reasons:

• The project violates the zoning for the site, and should never have been given building permits in the first place. 
• The site’s zoning clearly prohibits residential and residential hotel uses, while only allowing “transient” hotels; in spite of this, the developer has clearly advertised the development on numerous occasions as a residence, and referred to the fact that buyers would be able to live there year round if they chose. 
• The restrictive declaration constructed by the DOB to supposedly ensure conformance with the zoning is impossible to enforce. 
• DOB’s decision in this case was a complete reversal of prior rulings, including the April 2004 ruling in the case of 848 Washington Street, which made clear that units in transient hotels cannot be made subject to lease, sale, or other arrangements whereby they are not available for transient occupancy. 
• Even the restrictive declaration’s allowance of 120-day occupancy per year violates the definition of “transient occupancy” and the requirement that rooms be made available for rental on a daily basis. 
• It is clear that a condo-hotel such as this facilitates non-transient occupancy in a manner which should disqualify it under the zoning.

DOB’s approval in this case amounted to a change in the definition of zoning rules.  I thus strongly urge you to overturn the DOB’s approval of building permits for this project.

< < < ADD ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS HERE > > >

Sincerely,

NAME

<<<Be sure to include this information>>>

ADDRESS