Appeal protests against restaurant permits

Residents opposed to a California Chicken Cafe moving into their

neighborhood have filed an appeal protesting the Burbank Planning

Board’s unanimous approval of parking exceptions and allowing the

restaurant’s patrons to bring their own alcohol.

Neighbors of the proposed restaurant, planned for 2921 W. Magnolia

Blvd., will meet Monday to discuss the restaurant’s impending

arrival.

“Since the city Planning [department] staff had recommended not

approving the application, we felt we should pursue this further,

just to make sure,” said Penny Church, who lives along Niagara

Street, which intersects Magnolia. “I think we just need to spend the

time. These are our homes and we are most affected by it.”

Residents, who filed the appeal on Tuesday, are concerned that the

restaurant does not have enough parking, leading patrons to park

their cars on neighborhood streets. They also say a new

establishment, where alcohol is served, is one too many in an area

where there are five such businesses.

The issue went before the Planning Board at Monday’s meeting. City

staff had compiled a report for the board, which detailed the

proposed plans for the restaurant. The proposed eatery would be a

sit-down, high turnover restaurant with seating for about 142

customers. The building will be about 4,700 square feet and will

include 21 parking spaces, to which the owner plans to add six

spaces, for a total of 27.

“We want to alert other people in Magnolia Park that the Planning

Board has this idea of what they want to happen with Magnolia Park,”

said Angela Macris, also a neighbor. “They want to make it a new

Ventura Boulevard by allowing California Chicken Cafe in.”

The report also found that with the approval of the

conditional-use permit for alcohol, the incoming California Chicken

Cafe would make it six restaurants in the neighborhood with licenses

for on-premise consumption of alcohol. The Department of Alcoholic

Beverage Control has designated that an area with more than four

licenses constitutes an over-concentration of on-premise consumption

for alcohol, according to the report.

The applicant, Andre de Montesquiou, could not be reached for

comment Friday.

The board is not pushing for Magnolia Boulevard to become “another

Ventura Boulevard,” board Vice Chairman Dan Humfreville said, and it

also did not disregard its own staff.

“The city planning staff did not approve of the parking code, but

we found it to be within the Magnolia Park Master Plan because the

new revision looks favorably on restaurants,” Humfreville said. “We

made our decision predominantly on that. This restaurant has mass

appeal. There’s nothing within the local area like what was presented

to us.”

“In all fairness, we also said we would meet with the applicant

Andre de Montesquiou,” Church said. “He’s a very nice person, and we

don’t have anything against him. We just wanted to get people

together who were opposed to the project and meet with him.

“It’s not that we don’t want progress or anything,” Church

continued. “But when it affects your home, you do want to explore the

possibilities. It’s not a personal issue -- we’re just finding out

what’s going on.”

For more information about the Magnolia Park meeting, call (818)

955-8977 or e-mail [email protected].