Restaurant parking problem put to rest

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn Padri Restaurant in Agoura Hills

Despite strong opposition, the Agoura Hills City Council will allow Padri Restaurant to expand its live musical entertainment and add new parking spaces.

Owners of the adjacent Agoura Village Shopping Center and its main tenant, Hamburger Hamlet, appealed a Feb. 7 planning commission decision that gave Padri permission to make the changes.

The shopping center appealed the commission’s vote on grounds that the city has been unable to enforce overflow parking from the Agoura Road restaurant ever since it added live entertainment in 1994.

The restaurant at the time was known as the California Fettuccini Bar. When it became Padri Café Ristorante and Martini Lounge in 1999, the business grew in popularity and caused ill will among the other shopping center tenants who complained their parking spaces were being overwhelmed.

The council voted 2-2 on the appeal, with City Councilman Ed Corridori recusing himself from the hearing because Padri is a client of his personal printing business.

The tie vote meant the planning commission approval stands.

"I have not heard any compelling evidence that Padri cannot and will not comply," said City Councilman Dan Kuperberg, who joined Mayor Denis Weber in voting against the appeal.

Councilmembers Jeff Reinhardt and Louise Rishoff sided with the shopping center, which has complained for years that Padri violated its previous conditional use permit by allowing vehicles to park illegally in the shopping center lot.

"These intensifications of usage caused a predictable press on parking and traffic flow in the area," Reinhardt said. "My feeling is the 1994 CUP has been violated and should be revoked."

Ed Principe, the shopping center manager, agreed.

"We’re appalled they would get another added use when they haven’t complied with the original," Principe said.

The restaurant breached its customer capacity and allowed illegal construction, according to Reinhardt, a former planning commission member who helped regulate the restaurant in its early years.

Before the hearing, the city council approved the addition of 64 new parking spaces for use by Padri customers. The restaurant currently has only 29 spaces.

The new spaces, which Padri will rent from Whizin’s Shopping Center located across Agoura Road, are mandatory in light of the restaurant’s growing bar scene, the council said.

"Everything that has been asked of us to do as a good neighbor, we have done," said Merv Wolf, the attorney for Padri. "It is a class operation where people can go to have a good time. It is not a place where rowdiness occurs."

Neither Padri nor the shopping center was successful in obtaining permission to park on a Los Angeles County flood control lot just to the west.

Despite the extra spaces at Whizin’s, the parking issue promises to continue, according to a spokesperson for Hamburger Hamlet.

"Hamburger Hamlet is a destination restaurant, and if you go to a destination and you can’t find adequate parking, it’s detrimental to our business," said Christine Pomella, the company’s regional manager.

Pomella said the restaurant spends $10,000 a year to police the overflow parking from Padri.

One of the unintended consequences of the parking enforcement effort is to drive other shopping center customers away, said another tenant .

The Hamlet and the others have simply become jealous of his success, said Padri owner Saverio Posarelli.