The “project” at 320 Sunset gets approval for all that owner sought.
The project at 320 Sunset, that wanted to be a bakery/retail, then changed its mind and wanted to become restaurant with outdoor seating and liquor, got approval this week from Planning for everything.
Gjusta received approval for a full liquor dispensary, outdoor seating 13-1/2 feet from an apartment house or crate seating in part of an noncoveted parking lot, and change of use from bakery/retail to restaurant. The lease for the parking lot is 10 years.
Update could not follow all the appeals so Robin Rudisill was asked if maybe a step had been skipped.
Robin Rudisill, chair of the Land Use and Planning Committee for the Venice Neighborhood Council, said she might have a statement later.
Maybe if Robin and others in the community didn’t appeal EVERY SINGLE PROJECT just on principle as they are doing, the City might take them more seriously. I know some people downtown, and for them, Venice is both a nightmare and a joke. They comment that this group of activists who claim to represent all 40,000 Venetians, but in fact can only muster 50-100 people tops to show-up and oppose anything (aka the Beachhead mailing list), or LUPC members who got a few hundred votes out of 30,000 or so eligible “stakeholders” and claim they have a mandate, seem to think things like constitutional property rights don’t apply in Venice. I think there are legitimate concerns over some development, but this isn’t Celebration, Florida where you would expect the community (i.e.Disney) to dictate what you do with your property. Maybe these anti-development activists should put their money where their mouth is and buy these lots when they come up for sale. Then they can rent them out at affordable rates to name-on-rice artists or whatever and absorb the huge loss themselves as a sort of donation to the community they love. Alternatively, they could focus on the projects (320 may have been one of them, admittedly) that genuinely break/stretch the law, instead of acting like every project they don’t like is breaking the law, and they might be taken more seriously and be better able to mobilize community members who aren’t as zealous as they are.
Very, very well said, Nick. I would like this 100 times over if I could. Myself and other neighbors would take these opponents far more seriously if they didn’t fly off the handle at every possible opportunity, and instead focused their energy on select projects that affect the community as a whole. Incessant broken record ranting about milk crates is hardly the way to garner support from the rest of the locals, in fact it is having the complete opposite effect.