Santa Monica OKs Later Hours for New Eatery

Despite gripes from neighbors over possible noise, city officials have overturned an earlier ruling and will allow a new restaurant at the Santa Monica Museum of Art complex to stay open late at night.

The Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to permit developer Abby Sher to extend the operating hours of the restaurant at 2435 Main St. if she meets noise-reduction conditions.

Sher agreed to build a 4-foot plexiglass noise baffle on the restaurant’s north wall and to put tall plants on the east side facing 2nd Street.

The 75-seat restaurant is part of a $7-million project designed by architect Frank O. Gehry that includes the art museum and sites for retail stores. An 80-year-old egg-packing plant that belonged to Edgemar Farms was renovated to house the museum. The restaurant, stores and museum encircle a central courtyard behind a green-tile, Art Deco facade that faces Main Street.

The Edgemar project, located near residences along 2nd Street and on a residentially zoned parcel, was originally approved by the city’s Planning Commission in 1985. At the time, Sher agreed to earlier closing times.

Couldn’t Find Restaurateur

This year, however, she sought to have the hours extended. She said she could not find a restaurateur willing to accept the earlier closing times.

The Planning Commission unanimously denied the request April 20. But the City Council reversed that decision after conducting its own noise test and hearing from residents on both sides of the issue.

Sher said Wednesday that she was “very pleased” with the council’s decision. Not being able to attract a restaurateur, she said, had held up leasing the other retail space.

“This was an important factor,” she said. “I think we’ll gather a little momentum now.”

Sher said she was negotiating with Eugene & Associates to occupy the restaurant area. The firm operates two Westside restaurants, Chaya Brasserie and Flags, and would put a specialty Japanese restaurant at the Edgemar site.

Hours Changed

Originally the restaurant was to be open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and was to close at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Under the council’s decision, the restaurant’s hours will be 11:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Patrons will be allowed to stay at the restaurant for up to a half-hour after closing.

Morning hours will be changed to 11:30 on weekdays and 10 on weekends.

Some neighbors had objected to noise they said would be produced by patrons entering and exiting the restaurant’s parking lot.

“The peculiarities of the site make it certain that--despite all the good will in the world--noise, smells and disturbance will be visited on the neighborhood,” Geraldine Moyle, a community activist who lives a block from the project, wrote in a letter to the council.

Moyle contended that allowing a developer to agree to a set of operating conditions, and then granting him an exception, sets an “insidious precedent.”

Council members conducted an unusual noise test on June 30. They visited the project site and neighbors’ homes at about midnight, starting up cars and slamming doors to simulate noises made by restaurant patrons.

Although they concluded that the sounds did not violate the city’s noise ordinance, the council made a list of steps that should be taken to buffer the noise.