Car-Gazing : Spago Neighbors Watch Traffic as Fans Stargaze on Oscar Night

While most people came to gawk at some of filmdom’s biggest stars arriving at Spago restaurant for a post-Academy Awards party Monday night, Sibyl Zaden came to count cars.

And although she didn’t like what she saw, neither was she altogether displeased. “It could have been worse,” said the community activist, of the traffic congestion, as if to signal a truce--at least for now--between the restaurant and residents of a three-block area of West Hollywood.

She and others claim Spago’s success as a watering hole for the rich and famous has been at their expense, with nightly traffic snarls that they say have wreaked havoc in their quiet, hillside neighborhood overlooking the Sunset Strip.

“We don’t begrudge Spago its success, we just don’t believe we should have to put up with traffic jams every night while trying to get in and out of our homes,” said Zaden, president of the Shoreham Heights Neighborhood Assn.

The group, which represents many of the 1,000 apartment and condominium dwellers who use steep, narrow Horn Avenue--which passes in front of Spago--to get to their homes, has complained that the restaurant’s management has done little to help reduce the congestion.

Their ire is primarily directed at the chauffeured limousines, which regularly taxi up to the restaurant and drop off passengers, clogging the street and blocking driveways in a neighborhood where parking space is already at a premium.

Wolfgang Puck, who owns Spago, counters that the restaurant is doing all it can to accommodate the residents. “No matter what we do, some of the neighbors are still going to cry about something,” he said.

The dispute is expected to take on increased importance next month, when a conditional use permit granted by the county in 1983, allowing the restaurant to use a non-commercial parking lot for its patrons, expires.

Neighborhood groups refuse to say whether they will oppose Spago’s attempt to continuethe arrangement when the matter comes up before the Planning Commission. They see their undeclared position as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with the restaurant.

“Opposition (before the commission) is definitely an option if we’re not able to work something out soon,” said David Weissfeld, vice president of the Horn Plaza Condominium Assn. “We want the people at Spago to listen to us, something they haven’t had much of a willingness to do in the past.”

He and other residents met with representatives of the restaurant and city officials last week in an attempt to head off an expected traffic and parking crunch at the annual post-Oscars bash. Among the steps they agreed to was to make Horn Avenue one-way during the party. Another meeting, to continue working on a long-term solution, is planned for later this month.

City Manager Paul Brotzman said city officials are “trying to help foster an accommodation that will satisfy both the residents and the restaurant.”

“It’s a real dilemma. . . . We’re talking about one of the nation’s premiere restaurants that most cities would give an arm and a leg to have, and we’re about to take code enforcement action against them,” he said, referring to the Planning Commission hearing in May.

On Monday, as hundreds of movie fans strained from across the street to see their favorite stars enter and leave the restaurant, Weissfeld showed up with a video camera to record traffic problems.

The party, staged by show business figure Irving (Swifty) Lazar and his wife, Mary, has become something of a tradition at Spago in the past four years, drawing scores of celebrities and hundreds of spectators, media people, cruisers, and would-be party crashers--and the attendant traffic problems.

The guest list Monday included Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Glenn Close, Tom Selleck, Faye Dunaway, Sean Connery, Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Diana Ross, George Burns, and James Stewart.

Accompanying the celebrities was a caravan of limousines--at least 150 of them, said Gerald Peters, who chauffeured Peck to the party.

“This is an incredibly awful location for a limousine driver,” Peters said. “Just look at it,” he said, pointing to the street. “It’s narrow and on the side of a bloody mountain, plus there’s no place to park.”

Tom Kaplan, general manager of Spago, who spent much of the night trying to make sure that things outside went smoothly, assessed the congestion as “about as good as we could have hoped for, given the number of limos and the size of the crowd.”

The Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assigned to a special traffic detail worked to keep delays on Horn Avenue to a minimum, although, as an occasional clatter of horns suggested, they weren’t always successful.

Weissfeld, who recalled previous Oscar nights, “when it was practically impossible to get up the hill,” gave deputies high marks but was more cautious in his overall assessment.

“One night is one night,” he said. “We’re interested in what happens tomorrow, next week and beyond.”