Thomas Breen file photo
City Building Official Robert Dillon (right): Olive & Wooster is a rooming house.
Thomas Breen photo
The luxury rooming house at 87 Union St.
A luxury apartment complex with “collective” rentals is an illegal rooming house, and the building owners could face fines for running it.
That’s according to New Haven’s Building Department, which filed a Cease and Desist order accusing Olive & Wooster, one of the new high-end apartment complexes in Wooster Square, of violating the city’s zoning ordinance by running portions of the building as rooming houses.
The letter cites reporting in the New Haven Independent as well as the lease New Haven Legal Assistance Association attorney Rachel Scotch filed last November for a client facing eviction from one of the buildings’ “collective” rooms, in making the determination.
“You are in violation of New Haven Zoning Ordinance Section 42 Use Table 3, (B) Transient Lodging,” reads the letter, which was signed by city Building Official Robert Dillon and city Building & Zoning Enforcement Officer Evan Trachten on Feb. 27. “Therefore, to resolve this matter you must seek the Board of Zoning Appeals approval to obtain a Use Variance to operate a rooming house at this location or cease the prohibited use.”
Click here to read the full cease and desist letter.
“I am glad to see the city taking action on this. An illegal rooming house is an illegal rooming house, whether the rooms are $600 or $1,200,” Legal Aid’s Scotch wrote in an email to the Independent. “I hope that we’ll see many more of the former zoned, though, because there is a desperate need for deeply affordable housing in New Haven for single folks, both elderly and young, abled and disabled, who have very limited incomes. Once we have more of those units in place, then maybe we can consider adding luxury rooming houses that host ‘Mani & Sip’ nights, as well.”
The letter says that the “collective” units in the 299-unit Olive & Wooster complex at 87 Union St. are “being operated as a rooming house.” Since the building is located in a BD‑1 Central Business / Residential Zone, it would need a use variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to operate a rooming house, something it does not have.
According to the letter, the building owners are required to stop running the rooming houses within ten days. Owners are allowed to appeal the decision within 30 days or seek a variance from the BZA if they want to keep renting “collective” units. Otherwise, they could face a fine of up to $100 or as many as 30 days imprisonment. Each day not in compliance would count as a separate violation.
Olive & Wooster developer Darren Seid, whose New York City-based company Epimoni developed the 299-apartment complex at 87 Union St., did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Safehold Inc., which is listed as the property’s owner on the city’s land records database.
In an interview with the Independent, Building Official Robert Dillon said that the department had begun investigating Olive & Wooster after learning they were leasing four bedrooms individually in some apartments, violating the city’s housing code. He confirmed that the building is not registered with the city as a rooming house, a process that requires approval by both the fire department and the Livable City Initiative (LCI).
“We’re trying to meet our ordinance and really are looking for compliance,” Dillon said.
When asked what the cease and desist might mean for tenants already living in “collective” units in the building, Dillon said that was the responsibility of the owners.
The “collective” lease obtained by the Independent included a provision: “In no event shall the Dwelling Unit or the Premises be deemed a rooming, lodging house, boarding house or tenement house and, in the event any state or local agency makes any determination to the contrary, we reserve the right to terminate the Lease upon seven (7) days’ notice.”
According to the “collective” lease, the tenant Scotch represented was renting bedroom B in“Dwelling Unit” 452W‑B. The lease gave her access to her own bedroom as well as shared use of other spaces in the unit, including the kitchen and living room. The unit would also include other“co-residents” — other tenants living in the same unit under a separate lease contract with Olive & Wooster.
The co-residents were all expected to share the unit’s common spaces, and the lease gave the landlord permission to assign other renters to the tenant’s unit, or even their bedroom, without the tenant’s say or any screening process.
As of Wednesday morning, Oliver & Wooster still has 29“collective” units available for rent on its website. The units, which are advertised as four-bedroom apartments, have base rents ranging from $1,049 to $1,329 a month.
The Feb. 28 cease and desist letter.
