Info / Resources Page
For info on existing
CUP's and ABC
licenses, scroll down or click: Premises
Documents
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NEW OR CHANGING LICENSES,
INTENSIFICATIONS
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Civic Center Rezoning /
Upper Pier Avenue.
A
hearing
for a "General Plan text amendment" to re-zone the
civic
center and other city-owned properties - for a
mysterious project whose
existence the City refused to describe or even
acknowledge (but which
was suspected to include a large parking garage
immediately south of
City Hall) - was
scheduled for the Planning Commission meeting of
December 6,
2006.
However, after a
citizen complained that the subject properties had not
been posted, the
hearing was downgraded to an "information item," and
the official
hearing
was
continued to the Commission meeting of January 16,
2007. At
that
January meeting the matter was continued, due to time
constraints,
to the meeting of February 20, where it was "received
and filed."
That action gave City staff the go-ahead to finish
drafting the
amendment, so we can expect it to come back to the
City Council as a
public hearing item some time in the near
future. For more
information read the Beach
Reporter
article of December 14, which began:
"Officially
speaking, there's nothing in the works...."
On
January 18, 2006 the Hermosa Beach Public Works
Commission voted 4 - 1
(Winnek dissenting) to approve a 6-month test (by
painted striping) of
reducing
the traffic lanes on upper Pier to just one in each
direction. It took until
December 20 for the
street to be re-painted back to the old four-lane
configuration. Then in January 2007 the
Upper Pier Avenue Committee began to meet. See additional info.
Sharkeez (52
Pier Avenue) burned down in May 2006 and in early 2007
applied to
rebuild and add a second story. At
their meeting of March 13 the
Council adopted an ordinance (Bobko dissenting)
relaxing the Zoning
Code to permit
Sharkeez and other Plaza business to satisfy
second-story parking
requirements using only "in-lieu" parking
spaces. That action
became
the subject of a referendum petition which forced the
suspension of the
ordinance. [At their July 24 meeting the Council
voted to put the
question (of whether that ordinance could go into
effect) on the
November 6 ballot, but at their August 14 meeting the
Council reversed
that decision, and officially rescinded the
ordinance. For
more
information, see the website vivahermosa.com.
]
Dano's
(1320 Hermosa Avenue) went out of business in 2003 and
after a
two-year-long remodeling, re-opened as The
Shore. The new tenants re-opened under
the old (Dano's)
CUP and ABC
permits,
but later requested a CUP modification to add 180 sq.
feet of
space
- by expanding the mezzanine. The hearing was
postponed three
times at the request of the applicant, eventually was
scheduled to be
on May 15, 2007 - at which time the applicant withdrew
the request.
Club 705/Saffire's (705
Pier Avenue) Conditional
Use
Permit ("CUP") was scheduled for review or revocation
at the
December 6, 2006
Planning Commission meeting, but the hearing was
continued to January
16, 2007.
At that January meeting the Commission cut Club 705's
hours to
midnight. At that same
meeting, the Commission performed the annual CUP
review for all
downtown restaurants, but did not choose to schedule a
review/revocation hearing for any of them, despite the
fact that many
had higher counts of police calls than did Club
705. To see the
tallys of police calls, read the staff reports, at http://www.hermosabch.org/departments/building/agenmin/pc20070116/7.pdf
and http://www.hermosabch.org/departments/building/agenmin/pc20070116/11.pdf
.
Club
705/Saffire
appealed the Commission's cut of the hours, and at
their
meeting of May 8 the Council voted 3 - 2
(noes: Tucker and
Keegan) to return the hours to 2 a.m. seven days a
week.
Stillwater
Contemporary
American
Bistro (in
the
Pavilion building,1601 PCH). In April 2006
Stillwater
applied for a CUP for liquor and 2 a.m.
hours. The
proposed restaurant will be large by Hermosa standards
- 8000 sq.
feet. At
the hearing before the Planning Commission on August
15, 2006
the staff report recommended 12 midnight hours,
approximately 18
neighbors spoke against the license, and the staff
recommendation was
approved 4 - 0,
Commissioner Hoffman absent. On September 12,
Councilmembers
Tucker and Edgerton voted to appeal the Planning
Commission's decision
to the
city council. That appeal hearing was begun on
October 10, then
was continued to Tuesday December 12, 2006, where the
project was
approved, with 12 midnight hours seven days a week.
Mediterraneo's initial application to modify their City-issued CUP (for full liquor and 2 a.m. closing time x 7 days) was heard on October 21, 2003 by the Hermosa Beach Planning Commission. The project was approved 4 - 1, Comm. Pizer dissenting. On October 28, Councilmembers Keegan and Reviczky voted to schedule a re-hearing (appeal) before the council. That appeal was heard on December 9 and the council voted 3 - 1, Councilmember Edgerton dissenting and Councilmember Tucker standing down, to limit the hours to midnight.
In Summer 2005 Mediterraneo once again applied to the City for 2 a.m. hours. At the September 20 Planning Commission meeting, their request was denied, 3 - 2, with Commissioners Kersenboom and Perrotti voting for the later hours. Mediterraneo then appealed to the city council. After a number of postponements (requested by the applicant), the appeal was heard on September 26, 2006, and the Council upheld the Planning Commission's denial of the request for 2 a.m. hours.
(To see the hours of restaurants in neighboring Manhattan Beach, see "Restaurant Hours in a Nearby Town," below.)
TJ Charlyz
(1332 Hermosa Avenue)
has been replaced by Blue
32.
The
new
operators have taken over the old license and have not
yet
asked for any modification. Thus there is no
opportunity to
protest.
History:
TJCharlyz
petitioned
the ABC to be allowed to have dancing. May
20, 2004
was the
last
day
for members of the public to file an objection with the
ABC. The
ABC also gave the City Council an opportunity to object,
which was the
subject of discussion at the council meeting of May
25.
At that meeting the council reviewed a report from Chief
Lavin (below)
and voted 5 - 0 to object to the dancing.
The Chief's
report
raised the question: Why had neither the City nor
the ABC
previously taken
action to stop the violations noted?
|
May 20, 2004 Honorable Mayor
and Members of Regular
meeting of
May 25, 2004 RECOMMENDATION
TO
DENY DANCING
|
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UPSET BY CAMPAIGN ADS,
COUNCILMEMBER EDGERTON SUES CITIZENS, BUT IT
BACKFIRES
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On
December
3, 2003, Hermosa Beach City Councilmember Sam
Edgerton, the
Council's staunchest supporter of downtown liquor
licenses, filed a million dollar
libel suit against two Hermosa Beach citizens over
allegedly false
campaign ads they published in the days leading up to
the
November 2003 Council election. In the
suit Edgerton
complained that the citizens' actions had caused him
to be "shunned and
avoided." There is a story about the
suit in the Easy Reader newspaper of December 18, page
10. The
text of
Edgerton's
suit is available here: Verified
Complaint .
Edgerton
was
represented
by
the Hermosa Beach-based law firm, Nash and Edgerton,
now Edgerton
and Weaver. On March
5, 2004, just 13 weeks after the Councilmember's
initial filing, the
court
dismissed his suit and ordered Edgerton to pay
approximately $43,000.00 to the two citizens he
sued. The
dismissal
was made under a State law meant to deter suits that
are intended to
stifle free speech. Edgerton said* he would appeal
the
decision. According
to
The
Daily Breeze newspaper, one of the citizens Edgerton
sued commented: "He just validated my
point all along that he's not fit to be an elected
official." (The Edgerton case will probably
not be long remembered. Instead, history will
mark March 5, 2004
as the
date a New York jury found entrepreneur Martha Stewart
guilty
on four
criminal counts.) Additional stories can
be found in the
Easy Reader and Beach
Reporter newspapers of March 11.
*On
May
25, 2004 Mr. Edgerton announced that he would not be
pursuing an appeal
after all, and that he had tendered checks totaling
approximately
$43,000.00 to
the citizens he sued. According to the Easy
Reader (June 3), one
of those citizens, a former Councilmember,
commented: "Having
been a member of the club who lets their crocodile
mouth overload their
polliwog a$$ for some years myself, it appears now
that we may now have
a new president."
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During their December 12, 2006 meeting, the council considered the adoption of an ordinance to require businesses and promoters to obtain entertainment permits. They did not move forward with the ordinance, instead choosing to hold a public workshop in February.
At their January 16, 2007 meeting, the Planning Commission performed the annual CUP review for all downtown restaurants, but did not choose to schedule a review/revocation hearing for any of them, despite the fact that many had much higher counts of police calls than did Club 705, which had had its hours cut earlier in the meeting. To see the tallys of police calls, read the staff reports, at http://www.hermosabch.org/departments/building/agenmin/pc20070116/7.pdf and http://www.hermosabch.org/departments/building/agenmin/pc20070116/11.pdf .
During the January 16 CUP review, a business owner stated that a new association had been formed, and that the restaurants would police themselves.
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During a June 26 public meeting hosted by the new Neighborhood Watch, an audience member asked Interim Police Chief David Barr if the City could hire more police. He responded by asking her what other City service she was willing to give up - presumably to release the funds necessary.
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ANNUAL DOG AND PONY SHOW - SPRING 2005
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In May 2005 the City Council declared that they would issue citations to bar owners who violated their CUP's.
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ANNUAL DOG AND PONY SHOW - SPRING AND SUMMER 2004
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In 2004
we went through what has become an annual Spring
rite, a series of
meetings between bar owners, the police, and
community members.
On April 8, 2004 there was an article
noting that the police were cracking down on
over-occupancy, underage
drinking and the use of false identification. On the
morning of May 18
there was a meeting in the council
chambers,
between bar owners and police. The bars were
well-represented,
sometimes by 4 or 5 representatives per bar.
Eight or nine police
officers were there. The press was present,
and so were about 1/2
dozen vocal residents, even though the meeting was
not announced to the
press or the general public.
At
the
May meeting, City Manager Steve Burrell announced
that there would be
another meeting, in about 2 weeks, which community
members would be
encouraged to attend. On July 22 Mr. Burrell
announced that the
meeting would be (tentatively) on Wednesday August
4, at 7 p.m. in the
council chambers.
Here are Chief Lavin's listings of police calls to downtown establishments.
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ANNUAL DOG AND PONY SHOW -
SPRING 2003
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At its meeting of January 28, 2003, the City
Council appointed a subcommittee to begin working on a
plan to address
the concerns
that had been expressed about increased fighting in
the downtown area. (Now that years have passed, it is
interesting to look back at that report, and compare
with the current
wave of concern.) See: Crime
Subcommittee Report, the
"More Humor" section,
below, and the article ("Price Tag for Popularity")
in the Easy Reader
of December 18, 2003, page 10.
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THE COST: BAD
PRESS
FOR THE WHOLE CITY
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In a February 10,
2007 front page article headlined "Women drink like a
guy," the Daily
Breeze reported:
"Bars in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, such as
Harry O's,
Summers and Sharkeez - also draw students to drink and
compete in Beer
Pong. British-style pub The Underground near
Pier Plaza has
scheduled a tournament for Sunday evening."
The article defined Beer Pong as:
"Players take turns tossing ping-pong balls at a
cluster of glasses
filled with beer. Losers must chug the
beer."
In
June 2005 major newspapers carried front page articles
about the
Hermosa Police Department being the subject of an FBI
investigation and
numerous private lawsuits alleging mistreatment by the
police.
The FBI investigation could be, as Councilmember
Edgerton opined, "A
big yawn." Or there may be something
wrong. But if the FBI
finds 'no wrongdoing,' you can be assured that that
article won't be on
the front page. What most people will remember
is that there is a
problem in Hermosa. Most people think that where
there is smoke,
there must be fire. So, we are forever
blackened.
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THE COST:
POINTE
705 FILES $7.6M
CLAIM DUE
TO TREATMENT BY POLICE
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THE COST: THE (ONGOING)
DOWNTOWN SUBSIDY
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Some
figures
from the City's preliminary budget* for the fiscal
year
starting July 1, 2004, as of May 18, 2004 -
The
City's
budgeted expenses for the fiscal year
include $7.5 million for the police (a 12.6% increase
from the
previous year), $4.1 million for the fire department
(a 10% increase)
and $3.2 million to be spent on street repair (part of
a $16 million
5-year plan). Those three expenses total $14.8
million. The
City has never disclosed what portion of the police,
fire and road
repair spending is necessary because of the downtown
scene, but even a
conservative estimate would put it at 30% ($4.4
million), or
more. In addition, Downtown Enhancement Fund
spending
is projected to exceed, by $0.2 million, the Fund's sole
source of revenue,
fees from parking lots on City-owned land in the
downtown.
On
the
revenue side, sales tax income to City Hall from the
entire town is
projected at $2.1 million. Hotel tax is
projected to
be $1.2 million. Business license tax is
projected to be $0.7
million. Utility User's tax is projected to be
$2.4
million. Property tax is projected to be $5.9
million. Parking
meters (and parking tickets) are projected to bring in a
net
profit (after operating expenses) of $1.2 million.
These
citywide revenues total $13.5
million. Our estimate of the downtown's
contribution to these
revenues? About $2 million.
That
looks
to us like a $2.6 million (or more) annual subsidy to
the
downtown. You can make your own estimates, of
course. We
have repeatedly challenged City Hall to provide their
own figures, but
they won't.
(*The
figures
come
from
the Preliminary Budget book for FY 2004-2005, pages
34 and 35. The full book is available at
the library, the
Finance Department on the top floor of city hall, or
at the Chamber of
Commerce offices. For a more recent tabulation
of the downtowns
"balance of trade," see FAQ # 7 at vivahermosa.com.)
A
later estimate of the subsidy is available under FAQ #
2 on the
vivahermosa.com site.
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THE COST: ANOTHER SUBSIDY
- QUALITY OF LIFE
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RESOURCES:
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RESOURCE: RESTAURANT HOURS IN A NEARBY TOWN
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On
July
25, 2006
we obtained this table from the Manhattan Beach
Community Development
Department. We have added "R" to indicate the
more-recent
approvals,
and "M" to indicate those that are in the Metlox
development.
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RESOURCE: POLICE "ACTIVITY REPORTS"
NO LONGER DELAYED
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The
HBPD
has the Activity Reports (crime tabulations) on their
website, at http://www.hermosabch.org/police/statistics.html
Until
June
2002
the Activity Report was made public monthly, as an
insert in the
"packet"
for
the second council meeting of the month following the
month covered -
about a 24 day lag. Then the frequency was
changed to quarterly
(with approval by the
City Council - see Item 1 in minutes
of
9-24-02 ), with the report included in
the packet for the second meeting of the second month
of the following
quarter. For
example, the 2nd
Quarter 2004 report was in the packet of the council
meeting
of September 14, 2004
- 4 months after the middle of the that Quarter and
2-1/2 months
after it ended.
Beginning in January 2007, the Activity Reports were again being issued monthly.
