The e-letter is later than usual this week because I had too many meetings to go to and not enough time. I was thinking of having myself cloned but there is already enough ugliness in this world. And besides, with two of me, there’s always the chance that we’d conspire to be half as efficient.

The hot issue of the week seemed to be the application for a conditional use permit to serve a full line of alcoholic beverages in a proposed restaurant and bar, located at the northeasterly corner of Townsend Avenue and Colorado Boulevard (1581 Colorado Boulevard). Concerned stakeholders attended both TERA’s Preservation, Planning and Development Committee meeting on Wednesday night and the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee Meeting on Thursday night at Eagle Rock City Hall. In the interest of brevity (I can hear the cheering out there already) and because I see no point in getting into a “he said; she said” sort of reporting, I’m going to give my impression of where the proposal currently stands and what the next steps are.

As of the close of the ERNC PLUC meeting on Thursday night, the Applicant is requesting a conditional use permit for the sale of a full line of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption for a restaurant and bar. The restaurant is 3,773 square feet in area and will have seating for 150 patrons. The Applicant will revise the application to eliminate the request for live entertainment. There will be no live entertainment. The hours of operation will be from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday. The Applicant offered a number of “volunteered” conditions, some of which are standard conditions of approval and others of which can only be imposed by the City if the Applicant voluntarily agrees to them. The most significant of these, in my mind, are:

1. The quarterly gross sale of alcoholic beverages shall not exceed the gross sales of food during the same period.

2. No dancing, live music, or DJ’s will be allowed at the location.

3. The restaurant will open every day at 11:00 a.m. The 8:00 a.m. time on the application is to allow employees to work in the facility and for occasional special parties and meetings.

4. There will be noise mitigation measures implemented on the patio, such as foliage and bamboo, to protect adjacent residents.

The Applicant will need a variance for shared parking and has a lease agreement with the owner of a surface parking lot to the east (1531 Colorado Boulevard) to allow parking from 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The Applicant referred to a standard covenant and agreement frequently by the City to allow such shared parking, stating that it was difficult to get owners to agree to such a covenant.

The Applicant will also be requesting to purchase parking credits under the newly adopted Colorado Boulevard Specific Plan Pilot Parking Program. Under the guidelines for implementing this parking program, businesses that are over 2,500 square feet in area that are applying to purchase parking credits must get approval from the Colorado Boulevard Design Review Board. Since the proposed restaurant and bar has an area of 3,770 square feet, it must receive DRB approval to purchase parking credits.

Eagle Rock stakeholders showed up in force (standing room only at Eagle Rock City Hall) and voiced their concerns. Summarized in no particular order, those concerns are:

1. Hours of operation; open too late.

2. What is claimed to be a restaurant will become a night club bar and lounge once approved.

3. Restaurant is too big for the area in which it is proposed. It has almost double the seating capacity of other restaurants in Eagle Rock.

4. Sale of a full line of alcohol, especially in close proximity to church and schools.

5. Increase in traffic and commercial parking on residential streets.

6. Increased danger to children from drunk drivers and patrons and valets circulating through residential streets.

7. Adverse impact on neighbors and residential neighborhood from restaurant and bar patrons exiting late at night.

8. Impact on residents immediately adjacent to the proposed patio area due to noise and restaurant and bar patrons smoking in the patio.

9. Increased traffic hazard in an already hazardous area due to valet parking.

10. Failure to use valets and parking on residential streets instead.

11. Blocking access through the alley and trash pick-up in the alley.

12. The menu submitted in the application did not seem to reflect a top quality restaurant but was more like a bar menu.

And I’m sure there were more, but you get the idea.

Those stakeholders speaking in favor of the restaurant pointed out:

1. Eagle Rock should have a top quality restaurant which will add to the cachet of the area, which in turn will increase property values.

2. It is an urban area and they don’t want to live where the sidewalks are rolled up at 9:00 p.m.

3. It would be nice to have a restaurant that was open late in the evening for late night dining.

And at the end of all of the testimony and discussion, the Applicant agreed to the ERNC LUPC co-chair’s request to consider further revisions to the application based on the concerns expressed by the stakeholders and Committee members and to return at the April LUPC meeting to present any further revisions to the proposed project. That meeting is scheduled to take place on April 26, at 7:00 p.m. at Eagle Rock City Hall, in the basement.

The TERA Planning and Development Committee is currently considering the proposed project and will make a recommendation to the TERA Board prior to that ERNC LUPC meeting. We greatly appreciated the neighbors who attended the meeting to find out more about the proposed project and who stayed to discuss it and let us know their concerns.

Unfortunately, due to the length of time the discussion about the proposed restaurant and bar took, the other item on the ERNC LUPC agenda to which we have devoted much discussion was not heard. The developers of the proposed 9 lot subdivision near Round Top and Kerwin, on Onteora Way were in attendance but had no time to present their presumably revised project. They did pass out copies of petitions signed by nearby neighbors expressing support for the proposed development, which states, “We support this new housing project because we understand that additional housing units are needed in our City as a whole. We believe that this project will address that need and the applicant intends to build homes that blend in with our neighborhood. In addition we are pleased to hear the applicant has agreed to work with the neighbors on Round Top Drive and Kerwin Place to mitigate some of the view issues. We believe the single-family homes would be a good addition to our neighborhood. We, therefore, urge Councilman Huizar and the Zoning Administrator to approve this project.”

The TERA Board, acting on the recommendation of its Preservation, Planning and Development Committee and feedback received from neighbors in the area, voted to oppose the proposed zone change which would permit 9 single family dwelling units rather than the 6 permitted under the existing zoning on the site. The Board felt that while the property owner had a right to develop the property, the existing zoning was consistent with the adopted community plan and development of fewer houses would have less of an impact on adjacent residents and on the very narrow streets that constitute the circulation system up to the proposed project. I don’t know what specifically was offered to the neighbors as mitigation measures but will report in when more is known.

And really folks, this is the short version of “Planning and Land Use in Eagle Rock”.