Mall Liquor Sales Raise Concerns : Santa Monica: Some residents say the Third Street Promenade could become ‘another Westwood,’ with similar crime, traffic and parking problems.
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The sudden success of the reinvigorated Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica has become too much of a good thing for some residents, who are concerned that the three-block area has reached a saturation point on places that sell liquor.
The City Council’s approval last week of a 400-seat nightclub came after a long debate in which many complaints were raised about the Promenade potentially becoming “another Westwood” with similar crime, traffic and parking problems.
The Promenade “has one of the largest concentrations of alcohol outlets of any place in the United States,” said Don Nelson, a member of the Planning Commission. Nelson said the city has given 45 outlets approval to sell alcohol in the Promenade.
Meanwhile, in a significant escalation of hostilities on the issue, the owners of a recently opened bar and restaurant on the Promenade have threatened to sue anti-liquor activist Trisha Roth unless she withdraws her protest of the establishment’s liquor license.
Roth, who routinely challenges license applications from much of the Westside to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and in many instances is able to delay the issuance of the licenses for months, received a letter last week from a lawyer for the Sports Legends bar and restaurant that accused her of harassment and said the bar’s owners would sue unless she abandoned her effort to have the license revoked.
Roth, a Beverly Hills pediatrician, said this week that she cannot afford the legal expense of such a suit and will withdraw the challenge. “I cannot risk my family and everything else,” she said.
While Roth’s primary concern is the easy access to alcohol and drunk driving, the concern of a growing number of residents goes beyond alcohol consumption to other potential problems brought about by the increasing number of people who are flocking to the Promenade to watch movies, eat dinner, dance and drink.
Merritt Coleman, a spokesman for the Santa Monica Neighborhood Coalition, said he is concerned that police services may be drawn out from neighborhoods to patrol the Promenade.
“It is becoming a destination point for a lot more people outside of Santa Monica, and it is losing its balance,” Coleman said.
Jennifer Polhemus, a city planning commissioner, said the rapid proliferation of eating, drinking and entertainment establishments on the Promenade had come as a surprise.
“Development has proceeded much faster than the city anticipated, and it has been skewed toward entertainment and restaurant facilities,” Polhemus said. “The retail component is not as nearly developed as planned. . . . We need to ask what are the problems to the city of an increase in the number of alcohol outlets. Are we taking away police protection from neighborhoods and putting it down on the Promenade?”
Police officials said that their department’s policy is to evaluate each liquor license individually, but that the department has not taken a formal position regarding the overall number of places on the Promenade that serve alcohol.
However, Detective Shane Talbot, chairman of the Santa Monica Police Officers’ Assn., told the City Council last week that many officers are concerned about the way the Promenade is developing and the potential dangers it could pose.
Talbot said all further development should be stopped to reassess the planning goals for the Promenade.
“This is a good opportunity, before summer, to evaluate if this is the way the city wants to go,” he said. “We have not experienced a summer with the new mall. That’s not to say that the mall is now a dangerous place to be, because it is safe. But let’s not move too quickly.”
Nelson, of the Planning Commission, agreed that city officials should pause to look at how the mall is developing.
“We need to take a step back. . . . Let’s get everything that has been approved on line and see if we can handle any more,” he said. “Then we can get an idea of what is going on. We are approving project after project and don’t have a sense of what is going on.”
Councilman Ken Genser was one of two voting against the 400-seat nightclub last week. He said the club--which will feature live jazz, blues and folk music--will be a great addition to the street, but voted against it because he felt there were too many bars and restaurants in the area.
“I am concerned about the total number of people we are inducing to come here, and the lack of sufficient city facilities and services, including both parking and the police’s ability to handle the crowds,” Genser said. “This is not a direction we should be moving toward.”
Councilman Dennis Zane, one of the Promenade’s strongest supporters, said that residents’ concerns are valid, but that there should be a distinction between places where people go just to drink and places that offer alcohol with dinner.
Zane said the northernmost block of the Promenade, between Wilshire Boulevard and Arizona Avenue, can still accommodate restaurants that serve alcohol.
“I don’t think the city wants to become a bar haven--nor does it want to be only comfortable for people who don’t drink at all,” Zane said.
Thomas H. Carroll, executive director of the Bayside District Corp., the nonprofit group that manages the Promenade, said guidelines have been established to curtail unruly drinking at restaurants with outdoor dining by banning alcohol in outdoor areas when the kitchen closes.
Carroll said the problem is not the number of alcohol outlets, but how the facilities are managed.
He said district officials are working to bring in more retail business to the Promenade, but that the movie theaters and restaurants had to be developed first to attract people.
“Retail comes to where the people are,” he said. “We now have the people and expect to attract the retail.”
Carroll said the district plans to move forward with plans to add more parking to the six city garages along 2nd and 4th streets, which now contain 3,000 parking spaces.
Other liquor-serving establishments on the Promenade are following the dispute between the Sports Legends and activist Roth with interest.
Roth had challenged the restaurant’s license initially, she said, in an effort to force it to set up a designated-driver program. The license was issued after a delay of several months. When the bar refused to meet her terms, Roth sought to get it revoked.
In a letter to Roth, Legends’ attorney Denis M. O’Rourke said her protest could cost his clients substantial dollars to defeat “your malicious action” and that it “impacts our client’s financial standing, credit, goodwill and community reputation.”
O’Rourke represents another soon-to-open Promenade restaurant and nightclub, the Golden Monkey, whose license Roth also initially fought and lost. The attorney said that if she seeks to have that license revoked, he is prepared to sue her on the same grounds.
Roth acknowledged that she found the legal threats intimidating.
“This is the first time I’ve gotten that kind of letter,” she said. “It is definitely very scary.”
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