Hermosa Beach Cites Car Dealer Vasek Polak for ‘Moving’ Violation

After years of complaints from neighbors of the Vasek Polak automobile dealerships on Pacific Coast Highway, Hermosa Beach has cracked down on one of its largest generators of sales tax revenue.

Vasek Polak, who owns five new and used dealerships in the tiny beach city, was cited Monday for a misdemeanor zoning violation of the city Municipal Code for moving his Subaru dealership from 2775 Pacific Coast Highway to property next door at 2851 Pacific Coast Highway without getting city permission.

The citation also charged him with a less serious infraction stemming from the installation of Subaru signs on the property without a permit.

Then on Tuesday, the Planning Commission tightened the conditional-use permit covering the dealerships in an effort to satisfy complaints from residents in surrounding neighborhoods that Polak’s businesses--particularly the BMW dealership at 2901 Pacific Coast Highway--operate past legal business hours, generate noise and exhaust and create parking problems and congestion by failing to provide adequate parking for employees.

Building and Safety Director Bill Grove said Polak has been repeatedly warned by the city since the early 1980s to comply with conditional-use permits restricting noise and other activity on the car lots. But neighbors’ complaints persisted.

In 1985, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board cited Polak for illegally discharging industrial wastes by hosing down the pavement in front of the BMW dealership, sending oily, soapy water past the beach homes along 2nd Street.

But the charges brought Monday--carrying a maximum penalty of $500 and six months in jail--mark the city’s first enforcement effort.

“There’s a long history of trying to get him to comply with a lot of these conditions, . . . and the city really viewed issuing the citations as a last effort,” Grove said. The city didn’t cite Polak before because “our main goal was to try to resolve the issues so everybody (would) come out ahead.”

After a number of warnings, he said, Polak applied for permission to amend his conditional-use permits to relieve neighborhood concerns but then delayed the hearings so many times, “he appeared to be dragging his feet.”

Polak declined to comment.

Polak’s dealerships generate more sales tax revenue for the city than any other single business, said City Treasurer Barry Brutsch, who declined to release the exact figure. But Michael Pitton, who heads a citizens group that has complained repeatedly about the dealership, felt the citations were inadequate.

“They only cite one thing when there are a thousand things,” he said.