Meeting Date: 10/09/13 05:30 PM
Meeting Type: Regular
Location: Will & Ariel Durant Library, 7140 Sunset Blvd., LA, CA 90046
Details: 1. Welcome, introductions and general comments on the PLUM Committee's operations by the committee's chairperson.
2. Review the draft minutes of the committee's meeting on September 11, 2013. The draft minutes are posted and available for your review on his website under the committee's meetings archive.
3. Report from the committee's chairperson re: 8150 Sunset Blvd., the town hall and the scoping meeting for that proposed project.
4. Report from the committtee's chairperson re: 6613 Hollywood Blvd., formerly known as Lucky Devils and now doing business as Lucky's Tavern.
Proposed motion: The PLUM Committee recommends that the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council Board vote to withdraw HHWNC's support for additional live entertainment entitlements, ask the Planning Department to deny the current application for additional live entertainment entitlements, and delay any reconsideration for additional live entertainment entitlements by at least one year.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA 2013-1906.
5. 1707 Las Palmas – Smokin' Pig Restaurant
Lee Rabun filed an application with the Planning Department for a new operator of the restaurant who is seeking entitlements as part of the process of opening the new restaurant. Currently, there is no conditional use permit to sell any beer or wine, or a full line of alcoholic beverages at the site. There is, however, a pending application with the state's ABC to sell beer and wine there, which could be upgraded if the Planning Department were to approve a conditional use permit to sell a full line of alcoholic beverages at the restaurant.
The new operator/tennant is going to operate Smokin' Pig Restaurant. It will be a barbecue place. The application asks for permission to operate 24 hours daily, sell a full line of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption between 6 am and 2 am daily, and sell 750 ml corked wine bottles for take-away/off site consumption during those same hours.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA 2013-2342-CUB. The application is posted in.the committees' list of articles on the PLUM Committee's page on www.hhwnc.org.
Lee Rabun will be making a presentation.
6. 1349 Gardner – a proposed small lot subdivision
Ann Haber has applied to the Planning Department for approval, meaning vesting, of a tentative tract map for a 4-unit small lot subdivisionon the site. The lot currently has a vacant house. The application states that the lot is 6,600 square feet, and that the four units in the proposed subdivision would range from 1,123 square feet to 1,393 square feet.
Meeting the minimum width of 16' to qualifty under the Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance seems to be dependent on eliminating side yards which otherwise would be required. The applications states that Ms. Haber is applying for either a reduction or elimination of side lot yards. The site plan indicated a request for the elimination of the side yard setback to zero and a possible reduction of the rear yard setback, which otherwise wasn't mentioned in the application.
Regina Minor, Ms.Haber's representative, will be making a presentation.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is AA 2013-2337.
7. 1400 Vista Street – a proposed condo conversion
1400 Vista Street is an existing 8 unit rental apartment buiding.
1400 North Vista LLC has filed a tentative tract map application to ask for permission to subdivide the building into 8 condominium units.
We don't have a Planning Dept. case no.
8. 1449-1451 Gardner – Gardiner Junction – revised proposal for a restaurant.
Matthew Hayden will be presenting a revised restaurant application, which he recently filed on behalf of the operator.
The new request still is for a conditional use permit for selling a full line of alcoholic beverages at the restaurant, but without the new outdoor patio in the initial proposal and without new parking spaces. The hours of operation would be reduced so that the restaurant would close by 11 pm, except that it would close by 12 midnight on fridays and saturdays.
Matthew Hayden will be making a presentation. This will be his initial presentation to the PLUM Committee. He presented the initial application to the Area 7 Committee prior to PLUM's first meeting in 2012. Mr. Hayden also will be presenting the revised proposal to the area committee at a meeting sometime soon.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA-2012-2019-CU.
9. 2775 Cahuenga – The Banana Bungalows site.
Lennar Corporation has filed a new master land use application to add retaining walls for 15 of the 40+ homes being built at the site. Specifically, walls which Lennar claims were indicated on the previously approved plans for the houses on lots 9-19, 32-34 and 41 need to be approved again as retaining walls because the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety did not consider those walls to be house walls, but considered those walls to be site retaining walls.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA 2013-2920-ZAD.
Lennar Corp. may be making a presentation.
10. Public comments on any nonagendized items.
11. Adjournment.
Plum committee members Orrin Feldman, Jeff Papes, Jim Geoghan and Mary Prange were present. Area committee 7 chair Barbara Witkin, and EMS committee chair Dietrich Nelson also were present.
There was a quorum of voting members of the committee present when this meeting began at 5:32 pm. Approximately 15 stakeholders were present.
The committee reviewed the draft minutes of its September 11, 2013 meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously.
Barbara Witkin asked that the mintues reflect that Mike Cohnazad had postponed coming to this and the previous commmittee meeting to give an update on the project he's leading at 7120-7130 and 1440 Detroit. Since his last appearance at the committee's June 26, 2013, demolition work had proceeded without notifying the committee, and without updating the committee about discussions with the neighbors in the adjacent building(s).
2. 6613 Hollywood Blvd. – Lucky's Tavern
The committee discussed the changes made to Lucky's restaurant since the zoning administrator's hearing on September 3, 2013. Lucky Vanous, the owner, responded to the committee's concerns about what had happened and about what the applicant and his representatives had told the committee, HHWNC's board and the zoning administrator.
The committee voted (4-1-0) to recommend that the HHHWNC board vote to withdraw HHWNC's support for additional live netertainment entitlements, ask the Planning Department to deny the current application, and delay any reconsideration for additional live entertainment entitlements by at least one year.
Ms. Prange voted "no" on the basis that the restaurant/tavern was too small an operation to be singled out.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA 2013-1906.
3.1707 Las Palmas – Smokin' Pig Restaurant
Lee Rabun introduced Mario Kattan, who is the owner of the existing Citybreads restaurant and the Juicy Burger store on Ivar. Mr. Kattan will be operating the Smokin Pig barbecue restaurant. A discussion of the requested entitlements occurred, and it was agreed that the discussion would be continued at a later meeting to follow a presentation at an area 3 committee meeting.
Open issues included whether the restaurant should begin with a beer and wine CUP, rather than a CUP to sell a full line of alchohol, what the operator's plan for early morning operations might be, not allowing any drinks to be sold before 10:30 a.m, and whether off-site sales of wine should be limited to picnic and gift baskets.
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA 2013-2342-CUB.
4. 1349 Gardner – a proposed small lot subdivision
Regina Minor, the owner's representative, discussed Ann Haber's proposed small lot subdivision. The lack of side yards as a fire safety issue was discussed. The matter was continued for further discussions at a future meeting.
The Planning Dpet.'s cas no. is AA 2013-2337.
5. 1449-1451 Gardniner – Gardiner Junction – a revised proposal for a restaurant.
Matthew Hayden represented the two owners, who were present, in a discussion about a revised proposal for a restaurant. While there was an acknowledgment of some progress, there still were concerns about (i) whether there should be a full line of alcohol, or just beer and wine available at the restaurant, (ii) whether the revised parking plan was satisfactory, (iii) whether the Fire Department would have any concerns about how cars would be parked at, and move around, the site, and (iv) whether the outdoor patio's noise needed more mitigation measures even if the restaurant were to close at 11 p.m. or midnight.
Mr. Hayden and one of the owners explained that they didn't want to start operating and wait for a year to see if a full line of alcohol would become acceptable to the nearby residents. They were concerned that the rights they had gained by winning an LA County wide lottery for CUPs would be lost if they didn't proceed now with their application to serve a full line of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption at the restaurant..
There is an open legal question whether an adjacent residential house may lease parking spaces to the restaurant since it is a commercial operation. In other words, can a residential owner lease parking spaces to a commercial operation?
The revised restaurant proposal will be considered at the next area 7 committee's meeting and then come back to the PLUM committee for further discussion(s).
The Planning Dept.'s case no. is ZA-2012-2019-CU.
8. Lloyal Pennings made comments on his operating at 1835 N. Cahuenga Blvd. He asked to be advised if that site were to be put on any future agenda.
9. The meeting meeting was adjourned approximatley at 7:20 p.m.
The committee's next meetings are scheduled for wednesdays on November 13 and December 11, 2013 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. at The Durant Public Library's community room.
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