Council Panel Reverses Zone Board, OKs Expansion of Louver Gallery

Plans to expand L.A. Louver Gallery in Venice are on again, thanks to a favorable ruling Tuesday by a Los Angeles City Council committee that overturned a decision that gave a short-lived victory to a neighborhood group opposed to the project.

The decision by the City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee reverses a setback suffered by the internationally known art gallery in August, when the Board of Zoning Appeals refused to grant a needed coastal development permit.

A final ruling by the full council is set for Dec. 20. The California Coastal Commission is the final hurdle facing the gallery’s ambitious expansion that will consolidate five Venice facilities under one roof.

The L.A. Louver expansion is a joint project of gallery owner Peter Goulds and his developer partner, Werner Scharff, a major Venice landowner. In denying the gallery’s permit in August, Board of Zoning Appeals members said Scharff’s violations of other agreements with the city were a key ingredient in their decision, which stunned everyone involved.

The project ran afoul of the board in part because of a continuing dispute about the proper disposal of garbage from Rebecca’s restaurant on the same block.

Scharff also owns the restaurant property. Several zoning board members said in August that they were outraged by what they saw as his flouting of conditions under which he was granted approval to operate Rebecca’s.

Rebecca’s, the L.A. Louver and the West Beach Cafe are on Venice Boulevard between Speedway and Pacific Avenue. They share the street--and the alleys--with residents who have frequently complained about smelly garbage and disturbances from the restaurants.

Board of Zoning Appeals President James Leewong was particularly irritated in August to learn that Rebecca’s chronic trash problem was being resolved by carting it from the alley behind the restaurant to the alley behind the West Beach Cafe, where it could “stink even more” to other residents. Leewong called Scharff a man of “many tricks.”

The board rejected the permit by a 3-1 vote, which Scharff appealed. After a brief hearing on Tuesday, Councilmen Hal Bernson and Michael Woo, members of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, swiftly ruled for the gallery without explanation. The third member of the committee, Councilman Robert Farrell, was absent.

Tuesday’s committee hearing was as perfunctory as the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing was rancorous, leading residents to charge the committee had been predisposed to rule against them. “It was apparent to me the whole thing was decided before we got there,” said Venice resident Bonnie Faulkner.

By custom, the committee tends to go along with the local council member’s wishes. Venice Councilwoman Ruth Galanter has supported the gallery project and told residents that she had no reason not to support it now, several of them said.

In a “Dear Hal” letter to Bernson, Galanter accused the residents of offering the committee misleading information by trying to link the garbage problem with the building permits.

“Unlike certain of my constituents, I am not in favor of rejecting one permit because of the sins of another, despite the ownership linkage,” Galanter wrote.

Galanter’s letter did not include an outright pitch for the gallery, and her planning deputy, Jim Bickhart, insisted that Galanter was letting the plan rise or fall on its own merits.

Gallery owner Goulds, his partner Scharff and more than a dozen others were at the hearing to support the gallery.

After the vote, Goulds noted he had worked very hard with the community “since Day One” four years ago to design a building in harmony with the street. “I’m very disillusioned with the neighbors, frankly.”

Goulds said the gallery belongs in Venice, where it has been for 14 years, because the beach area is the art hub of Los Angeles. Under that same reasoning, a zoning administrator had urged the Board of Zoning Appeals to allow the gallery to expand.

Scharff denied any awareness of garbage problems until the uproar raised by the Board of Zoning Appeals. Scharff said he was happy that the gallery project could go forward. He said he thought that the trash issue was irrelevant and should not have been considered by the zoning board.

Since the August ruling, Scharff said, the trash has been stowed on the top level of a parking structure, as required by his permit. “No big deal,” he said.

Residents, however, say that the newly placed dumpster is just for show and that the alley behind the West Beach Cafe continues to be the repository of the garbage. “It’s just a dummy dumpster,” Faulkner said.

At the August hearing, managers from the two upscale eateries said they could not put dumpsters atop the structure because they were so heavy they would careen down the ramps.

Even if the trash problems are resolved, Rebecca’s still faces a battle with the city over its valet parking. Zoning Administrator Robert Janovici told committee members Tuesday that the restaurant’s practice of charging for valet parking violates its agreement with the city. If the restaurant does not change its policy, Janovici said the city may seek to revoke its liquor license.

After the meeting, Scharff insisted that charging for valet parking was allowed by his permits. Bernson said the matter was not under his committee’s jurisdiction and would be taken up later by another agency.

NEXT STEP

The decision by the City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee to approve L.A. Louver Gallery’s expansion is expected to be ratified by the full council Dec. 20. The only remaining hurdle for the project is obtaining the approval of the California Coastal Commission.