Nine Illegal Rooms

Marc Smith apparently has as little regard for city regulations, permit requirements, and zoning ordinances as he does for labor laws protecting the right of employees who choose to form a union.

In the course of the organizing campaign, HOTROC staff organizers were approached by carpenters, plumbers, and electricians outside the St. Louis hotel who told them they were not employed by the hotel but by subcontractors who had been performing some construction work at the site since January. The carpenters, electricians and plumbers said they were converting what had been administrative office space to guestrooms. St. Louis hotel housekeepers confirmed that management had moved most of its administrative offices to additional space it had acquired in a nearby building and had created nine new guestrooms out of the former offices.

This is a clear and disturbing violation of the long held city moratorium on the construction of new hotel rooms in the city's famed French Quarter. This blatant disregard for the law accelerates a trend that if allowed to continue will turn a famous part of the city into a commercial zone that takes away from the quaint and distinctive character of the quarter.

The rooms are on the second floor, numbered consecutively from number 201 onward. They are regular rooms, not suites; most have two double beds and a bath, At least four of the nine rooms have been repeatedly rented to paying guests. The others are still in need of painting and other details to be considered complete and rentable.

Illegal rooms at St. Louis Hotel in French Quarter Further investigation by HOTROC uncovered the following:

No building permit for the extensive renovations had been obtained from the city's Department of Building Safety and Permits. Every property owner in the city knows that a building permit is required before commencing any significant project. Where such prior sanction is not obtained, the Department of Building Safety and Permits has the authority to impose fines as penalty for unpermitted, illegal construction. As a deterrent to scofflaws, fines are usually calculated at three times the cost of a permit ($5 per $1000 cost of the work) for each day that the construction work has been in progress.

No zoning variance had been obtained from the Vieux Carre Commission, the body with jurisdiction over construction in the French Quarter. Had the hotel bothered to go through the process for obtaining a zoning variance, it is unlikely that permission would have been granted given the well-known and long-standing ban on new hotel rooms in the French Quarter. The Commission has the authority in such cases to issue a stop work order, impose its own fines and require the dismantling of the illegal construction.

No occupancy permit had been issued by the Fire Department for the rooms in question. Such permits are required to ensure that hotels and other buildings meet basic fire safety standards before being used by the public. The Fire Department may impose fines in such cases and order the removal of the construction.

On Saturday, August 21, 1999, more than one thousand HOTROC supporters demonstrated in front of the St. Louis Hotel publicly demanding that Marc Smith reinstate two fired housekeepers, stop his campaign of fear and intimidation, and respect employees' right to choose to form a union. Mr. Smith issued no public statement or response that day or since, but St. Louis hotel supervisors warned workers inside that they would be fired for even going outside during the event. Some workers went out the back entrance anyway and stood at the corner to watch the demonstration.

Shortly after the demonstration, Mr. Smith learned through an intermediary that HOTROC was aware of the possibly illegal conversion of office space to guestrooms. On Tuesday August 24, Smith went personally to the Department of Safety and Permits and was apparently able to secure a construction permit after the fact. All he was required to do was pay three times the usual cost of a permit (about $1,500 in this instance) even though the construction had been underway since January,1999! This amounts to a slap on the wrist since Safety and Permits could have imposed that amount for each day the work on the new guestrooms had been going on without a permit. Why was Mr. Smith able to circumvent the law and gain a profitable addition to his property while in clear violation of city law?

HOTROC attempted to get information on how it was possible for Mr. Smith to circumvent the law in such a blatant manner by going to the City Department of Building Safety and Permits for answers. Our contention was that the city agency charged with the enforcement of ordinances covering construction would be the logical place to find the answers.

HOTROC requested a meeting with the Department of Building Safety and Permits to discuss how this situation could transpire. Atthatmeetingthespokespersonfortheagencywentsofarastostatethathewasunawareofanyban on the construction of new hotel rooms in the French Quarter.The meeting ended with no substantive information being shared with HOTROC.

HOTROC researchers have, in addition, been able to determine that neither the Vieux Carre Commission nor the Fire Department has been notified by the hotel of its construction project or approached for necessary permits and none have been issued to date. While HOTROC does not contend that there is wrongdoing on the part of City Government the situation certainly is cause for the raising of eyebrows.

This situation is unacceptable to the residents of New Orleans. HOTROC calls on city agencies to aggressively pursue this matter and enforce the laws regarding illegal construction. We further call on city agencies to seek the maximum remedies to this illegal practice.

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