By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — A towering advertisement for Chipotle that was illegally hung from the side of a residential building on First Avenue is still standing months after the city ruled it had to be taken down.
The nearly four-story sign for the Mexican fast-food chain went up on a building at the corner of St. Mark’s Place in April in an area where city zoning regulations prohibit outdoor billboards.
A series of complaints were subsequently made to the Department of Buildings, which issued a violation to the building owner on April 20.
But the enormous white sign still remains affixed to the red-brick building nearly three months later, forcing some to question the speed with which the department works to remove unlawful advertisements.
“I think that the city needs to move more swiftly on these things, because basically it’s all too easy for these illegal sign companies to game the system,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has long campaigned against illegal billboards.
“They put the billboard up, reap huge profits, and months later the when the city acts… they’ve already gotten what they want.”
Moreover, because permits weren’t sought or granted for the sign’s installation, it was fastened without any oversight, which Berman said could pose a potential safety risk.
“If a strong wind or thunderstorm blew a three-story-high billboard down,” he added, “some very serious damage could be done to passersby.”
A Buildings Department spokeswoman explained that an inspection of the billboard in April found the sign stable and not in danger of collapsing.
The building owner, listed in DOB records as 85 St. Marks Development Corp., has been issued seven violations in total, with a maximum fine of $175,000 possible, said the DOB's Ryan Fitzgibbon.
A spokesman for Chipotle said the company was never made aware of the violation.
“If that board has been deemed to be in violation, no one has communicated that to us,” said public relations director Chris Arnold.
“We’ve had our board up there for some time and leased the space from a company who holds the license to use it for that purpose.”
He added that Chipotle’s contract for the space ended on July 4, and that the company will not renew.
The GVSHP battled another illegal ad on Avenue A in the spring, and the group was successful in helping pressure the city to issue an immediate removal order for a large gym advertisement in the West Village in January.
The neighborhood blog EV Grieve first reported on the billboard back in April, noting in a follow-up post this week that the ad has no place along one of the East Village’s most trafficked strips.
“I hope the Chipotle ad makes a quick exit too,” the blogger wrote. “I hate having such a large fast-food banner on a main thoroughfare of the neighborhood.”
