Fullerton : Restaurant Design OKd Amid Dissent

Despite objections from residents and a design review committee, the City Council has approved an English country-style design for a restaurant to be built atop a city park planned for the East Coyote Hills.

The council voted 3 to 2 to approve the restaurant design after a two-hour public hearing in which design committee members told the council that the project would be out of place at the hilltop park.

Committee members indicated that a panorama-type restaurant would be better suited for the hilltop.

By approving the country-style design, the council is missing an opportunity to build a restaurant befitting a park with a spectacular view of the area, said Thomas Lennon, a design committee member. “We are selling ourselves short,” he said.

Council members Chris Norby and Molly McClanahan voted against the country-style design. By approving the Summit Restaurant Co.’s design over objections of the review committee, McClanahan said the council is giving up authority to build the kind of restaurant residents want. “I still think the city ought to be in the driver’s seat,” she said.

In December, the council gave the committee the authority to approve the restaurant’s architectural design. But after meetings with Summit Restaurant Co. deadlocked in January, the council took away the committee’s authority. The committee may now only decide how the windows should be designed to afford patrons an optimum view.

The 438-seat restaurant, to be called Summit House, will open in 1991, said Gary Parkinson, a Summit partner and co-owner of the Catch restaurant in Anaheim.