The Daily Breeze June 17, 2008

Blue 32 faces early last call in Hermosa Beach

By Andrea Woodhouse, Staff Writer

The Hermosa Beach Planning Commission is chasing last month's decision to close a rowdy downtown bar early with another round tonight.

This time, the target is Blue 32, a popular tavern that could also see its operating permit modified in response to alleged violations of occupancy and state alcohol laws.

During its annual behavior check of the city's bars and taverns, the commission in February agreed to further study Blue 32, as well as the Shore and Dragon, which saw its hours slashed by the panel in May.

For the Hermosa Avenue establishment, Blue 32, the city staff has proposed several revisions to the bar's operating permit, including a provision that would allow the city to temporarily revoke alcohol sales and live entertainment if Blue 32 exceeds its occupancy limit of 126 people.

Most notably, as it did with Dragon, Hermosa has also proposed an earlier close time for Blue 32 - midnight instead of 2 a.m. on weekends.

Shaving two hours off the bar's weekend hours would significantly threaten its survival - specifically costing the 3-year-old business up to $10,000 in weekly revenue, owner Dave Lowe said.  "At stake is the entire survival of the businesses," he said. "We can't operate under those restrictions."

In a 466-page packet that Blue 32 owners submitted to the city, dozens of letters from patrons advocate a 2a.m. closing time.  "It is not uncommon that night life, beginning with dinner, doesn't even begin until 9 p.m.," wrote Simon Giles, a Redondo Beach resident.

"To imagine that my night would end before it even begins would definitely lead me outside Hermosa Beach to take my revenue to a destination where I can linger and enjoy all it has to offer."

Wrote patron Kimberly Glasing: "My husband and I have two young children and have a hard time getting a night out before 9 p.m. We enjoy being able to go to a nice establishment for dinner and would be sadden(ed) if the Planning Commission closed such establishments."

Hermosa Beach police statistics show the department received 118 calls for service in 2007 and the first few months of 2008.

City planners believe an earlier last-call for Blue 32 would help curb nighttime noise and disruptions.  "It is concluded that an earlier closing time would substantially reduce the calls for police service and better protect public safety," the staff report stated.

But Blue 32 owners strongly dispute the police figures.  After spending about 100 hours going through police reports and logs, Lowe determined that at least 40 percent of the police calls linked to Blue 32 were incorrectly attributed, he said.

To ensure the establishment follows Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control requirements that it sell no more booze than food, city staff also have proposed Blue 32 owners have a certified public accountant to monthly sign off on food and alcohol sales receipts.  Following that regulation could cost Blue 32 up to $5,000 a week, Lowe said.

The Planning Commission in recent months has taken a hard stance on Hermosa's raucous downtown night life.  February's bar review was the first in four years to spark any further examination of a tavern's adherence to its operating permit.

And last month's decision to modify Dragon's operating permit came as a pleasant surprise to Hermosa's bar critics.  Dragon owners have appealed the decision to the City Council, which will take up the matter next week.

The Planning Commission tonight also is set to discuss the operating permit of downtown hotspot the Shore, but that hearing will likely be continued until next month.

While he doesn't believe Blue 32 has been unfairly targeted, Lowe said Hermosa Beach should treat all downtown bars and restaurants equally.  "It just doesn't seem like a fair system," said Lowe, who has spent $20,000 in legal fees for tonight's hearing. "If the city wants to move down the line of closing everyone at midnight, then do that across the board."

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The Daily Breeze June 16, 2008

Monday's Letters to the Editor

Don't fence off beaches

I again enjoyed watching Hermosa Beach's Association of Volleyball Professionals tournament recently.

Many were surprised to see paid admission and fenced-off portions of the beach. Others probably stayed away from the event. Attendance appeared to be down from previous years.

I testified at a 2007 Coastal Commission hearing that paid admissions need to be controlled on public beaches and thought that commission staff recommended 25 percent paid stadium seating (such as in Manhattan Beach) was a reasonable compromise and in the spirit of the Coastal Act. The commission instead voted 6-5 to allow the maximum paid to 90 percent and fenced-off beaches for paid courts. That maximum remains until a new commission takes a new vote. The reason we saw this for the first time in the South Bay was that Hermosa's outdated AVP contract allowed for it.

This year, Hermosa will negotiate a new contract. I hope that the City Council will negotiate a reasonable contract that allows the AVP to bring in revenue to pay more players, provides a reasonable amount of free seating in the stadium and absolutely has no fenced-off areas on the sand. I encourage people to follow the issue and get involved before we see continued privatizing of our precious sand.

- DEAN FRANCOIS

Redondo Beach

The Daily Breeze June 12, 2008

Hermosa Beach hit-and-run sentencing postponed for the 7th time

By Denise Nix

Deputy District Attorney Paul Guthrie thinks the 8th time will be the charm for Ruben Vargas, who is expected to be sentenced to 16 months in prison for leaving the scene of an accident. His truck went into a Hermosa Beach house, injuring a sleeping 5-year-old inside.

Proceedings actually got underway today, as both sides began haggling about restitution. In the end, Judge Eric Taylor agreed that the family should get the full $66,192.16 they're asking for - but there's a hold-up because it's not clear how much Vargas' insurance company has paid them, and for what.

Vargas' attorney tried arguing that his client shouldn't pay the full restitution, maintaining Vargas wasn't driving when the truck crashed, only that he drove away. None of that is very clear, but Taylor agreed with Guthrie that it's a moot point since Vargas, has, in fact, pleaded no contest.

The Daily Breeze June 12, 2008

Hermosa Beach pair object to fee hikes

By Andrea Woodhouse, Staff Writer

It was the new guard vs. the old guard Tuesday as two first-term Hermosa Beach City Council members refused to approve a budget containing nearly $600,000 in fee increases to help balance the books.

City Councilmen Kit Bobko and Michael DiVirgilio, with the support of longtime Councilman Michael Keegan, managed to delay approval of the 2008-09 budget, requesting more time to study it and explore possible reductions instead of fee hikes.

"I have some problems with these fees," said Bobko, who was elected to his first term in a special June 2006 election. "I do not support just raising the fees out of hand without having corresponding cuts somewhere."

The $27.8 million operating budget proposed about $596,000 in fee increases to meet a shortfall without slashing services.

Attributing the deficit to lower property tax revenues, as well as flattening sales and utility-users' tax revenues, the city staff proposed charging for street sweeping; hiking recreation activities, business license applications and business license renewal fees; as well as parking fines.

In a 3-2 vote, the council decided to hash out the budget again in another workshop, this time reviewing proposed reductions equal to the revenue raised by the proposed fee hikes - except for parking fine increases, which council members didn't contest Tuesday.

"I'm sorry if I'm new," said DiVirgilio, who won his seat in November. "I expect someone is going to find me very cute this evening. But if I was sitting on my couch watching this, I'd be saying, `Why are they raising before cutting?"'

Bobko and DiVirgilio's dissatisfaction with the budget proposal, which the council already vetted in a May 29 workshop, visibly rankled Mayor J.R. Reviczky.

"You know, I keep throwing them and you keep missing them," he said. "This budget is based on no cuts. OK? This budget is based on doing the exact same thing we did last year, and to do the exact same thing as we did last year, the city manager came up with ways to pay for it."

Bobko and DiVirgilio also disapproved of the budget on a philosophical basis, arguing that it focused too much on individual elements of the city's coffers, instead of an overall policy and direction for the city's finances and planning.

"I think the days of doing everything are probably behind us, at least for the next few years, and that we need to make some hard choices," Bobko said. "And I, for one, don't really believe we have faced those choices yet."

Also Tuesday, a handful of residents appealed to the council to budget some cash assistance for the city's struggling school district.

Hermosa voters last week shot down a parcel tax aimed at maintaining existing school programs, including class-size reduction, music and technology.

While it didn't offer any cash, the council promised to discuss ways the city could assist the school district in upcoming regular meetings between officials from both agencies.

But with a council majority looking to slash next year's budget by more than $500,000, Reviczky warned that extra cash for the school district would be unlikely.

The Daily Breeze June 8, 2008

Heirs put Hermosa Beach's Mermaid on sale again

Plan to build a seaside hotel on Pier Plaza site derails.

By Andrea Woodhouse, Staff Writer

The Strand-front property housing a landmark Hermosa Beach tavern, as well as an adjacent chunk of Pier Plaza property, will go back up for sale this week - and at a discount, insiders said.

After recently falling out of escrow with a local developer envisioning a hotel for the site of the Mermaid and several other businesses, the properties will hit the market again by Friday with about $1.5 million knocked off their combined asking prices, said the land's broker, Jack Gillespie of South Bay Brokers.

The two properties - a 7,000-square-foot seaside parcel housing the iconic bar, as well as Good Stuff and the Poop Deck; and a 6,900-square-foot chunk facing Pier Plaza that's home to four businesses - first went up for sale for a combined $33.5 million in October, about three months after longtime owner Quentin "Boots" Thelan died.

The land had been in escrow with El Segundo-based Urban Pointe Development and Bancroft Capital of Manhattan Beach since early this year, but plans to build an oceanfront hotel recently stalled, Gillespie said.

"The buyers were very nice and doing very complete due diligence," he said. "They just weren't able to pull things together right now."

The decision to end the escrow was mutual, Gillespie said; Urban Pointe founder Brad Scott did not return a telephone message for comment Friday.

This time around, heirs hope to float the properties as a single listing, rather than two separate offerings, Gillespie said.

"We prefer to have them packaged because we feel it's better ultimately for the city and what can be done, especially with the amount of money tied up with them," he said.

"Because of city regulations and requirements and coastal requirements, it's harder to deal with small pieces of property," Gillespie added.

This time around, owners will shave $2 million off the original $27million asking price for the Strand-front property, but increase the plaza property price from $6.5million to $7 million, Gillespie said.

A hefty estate tax bill was the driving force behind the decision by Thelan's heirs to sell the land - including the wood-paneled, Naugahyde-upholstered Mermaid, which the former Hermosa mayor bought in 1954.

And apparently the tax man is knocking again: a May 31 letter from the Thelan Family Trust to tenants explained that the properties' values were reassessed and taxes were increased by "approximately 1,000" percent, it stated.

"While we do not intend to increase rents to the current market value, we find that we're not able to bear the whole burden of the below-market rents you have enjoyed with Boots," the letter stated.

In some cases, rent will increase by almost 38 percent, effective next month.

The properties have been watched with great interest by real estate buffs, residents, city officials and business owners - and surrounded by rumors - in the eight months since they first hit the market.

Any changes to the property, currently zoned for light-commercial uses, will undoubtedly have a significant effect on Hermosa's landscape.

But any significant alterations to the city's shoreline still appear distant: The letter sent to tenants also reassured the properties' occupants that any buyer would need up to three years to obtain necessary permits even if a sale happened immediately.