Judge Denies Activist Group’s Suit on Restaurant Expansion

A citizens group has lost its lawsuit to stop Montebello from spending $1.1 million on a new parking lot to accommodate the expansion of a privately operated restaurant and discotheque.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam Vogel last week found that the City Council acted properly when it approved the project. The judge also rejected the contention by Save Our Community that the parking lot constituted a “waste of public funds.”

“We’re quite pleased,” City Atty. Henry S. Barbosa said. “It’s a complete victory for the city.”

Save Our Community, a loosely organized citizens group with about 10 core members, filed the lawsuit in October. Save Our Community lawyer Jeffrey S. Cohen said an appeal is being considered.

The group filed the lawsuit after the City Council voted 3 to 2 in August to spend $1.1 million to build a 350-space parking lot on about two acres in Montebello’s Bicknell Park. The lot primarily will serve customers of the expanded Quiet Cannon restaurant and dance club, which leases a city-owned building next to the park.

The council approved the expansion of the Quiet Cannon the same night it voted to build the parking lot. Quiet Cannon Montebello Inc., which operates the restaurant and discotheque, plans to spend $2.5 million on a new restaurant and enlarged cocktail lounge, dance and banquet facilities.

The councilmen who voted for the projects noted that a consultant hired by the city projected that the expanded Quiet Cannon would provide the city with $140,000 in additional revenue annually. Mayor Arnold M. Glasman, who voted for the expansion and parking lot, also said the city-built-and-owned parking lot would benefit patrons of the municipal golf course and park who sometimes have trouble finding parking during peak hours.

The lawsuit alleged that the council was wasting public funds by paying for a parking lot to benefit a private business. It also contended that construction of the parking lot would violate terms of the agreement that deeded the park land to the city in 1941.

In that year, the city bought the golf course from the Bicknell family. As part of the transaction, the Bicknells donated 19 acres to the city for “park and recreational purposes.”

Just under two acres of that land is covered by roads. Another 1.5 acres has been paved to provide parking for the golf course and other city-owned facilities--including the Quiet Cannon--which were built in the early 1970s. The new parking lot will be on park property.

Environmental Study Cited

The lawsuit also contended that the Quiet Cannon does not conform to zoning laws and that the city’s environmental study of the project was incomplete. Vogel rejected those arguments.

But the judge also rejected a motion by the city and Quiet Cannon Montebello Inc. to declare the lawsuit frivolous and to require Save Our Community to pay court costs, Barbosa said. Quiet Cannon Montebello Inc. was named as an interested party in the lawsuit. The Quiet Cannon held a ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion on Feb. 23, and the city plans to start construction on the parking lot in September, officials said.

More than 100 people filled the council chambers the night the expansion was approved. Many who live in the vicinity of the Quiet Cannon complained of noise and the rowdy youths they said the dance club attracts to the neighborhood.