Panel OKs Dance Permit for Restaurant

A Los Angeles City Council panel voted 3 to 0 to grant a dance permit to The Great Greek, a Sherman Oaks restaurant, over the objections of homeowners who said the restaurant causes parking problems.

By its vote, the council’s planning committee backed issuance of a permit to allow ethnic dancing by waiters and patrons in the restaurant at 13362 Ventura Blvd. The application goes next to the full council for review.

But of greater importance to the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., which tried to block or restrict the permit, was that Councilman Michael Woo urged that the restaurant not be required, as a condition for issuance of the dance permit, to secure three-year leases on 60 off-street parking spaces for employees and patrons.

The parking condition was endorsed by the association as a compromise if the dance permit were granted.

But Woo said three-year leases are too difficult to obtain and he urged that one-year leases only be required. The panel backed Woo.

Other conditions on approving the lease were that the restaurant, owned by Ernest and Vicki Creizis, provide free valet parking, clearly advertise the parking to arriving patrons and hire two security guards whose job, in part, would be to ensure that The Great Greek employees do not park on adjacent residential streets.