Officials Call Pizza Plan a Bad Recipe

The City Council this week cited a new ordinance that gives local officials a say in the mixture of businesses in shopping areas when it unanimously rejected plans for a pizza business in the Galleria Monterey Shopping Center.

Although the new “tenant mix” ordinance did not strictly apply in the case of Volcano Pizza, whose owners sought a permit to operate in the shopping center, several council members cited the principles of the ordinance, enacted in February.

The ordinance is designed to stimulate more variety in new businesses. Because it governs only newly constructed shopping centers, it does not apply to an existing center such as the Galleria, which was built in 1983 on South Atlantic Boulevard.

Seen as Unwise

Council members said in objecting to the permit that the shopping center already has a pizza parlor, Michaelangelo’s. Councilman Barry L. Hatch said that even though he empathized with Jahan Sarshar, who planned to operate Volcano, and Chong M. Fong, who owns the site, it would not be wise to have two pizza businesses in the same shopping center.

In addressing the council, Sarshar and Fong said Volcano’s delivery and take-out business would not directly compete with Michaelangelo’s, which has tables where customers can eat.

The Planning Commission had already rejected Sarshar’s request, citing potential traffic problems from pizza delivery vehicles going in and out of the Galleria. But City Planner M. Margo Wheeler had recommended that the council approve Volcano’s application.