Parking Deal Lifts Curbs on Hotel

Reductions in occupancy rates imposed last month on Barnabey’s Hotel and Restaurant in Manhattan Beach were overturned by the City Council on Tuesday night when the hotel’s attorney presented an 11th-hour parking plan that satisfied city staff and the council.

A standing-room-only crowd cheered when the council voted 4 to 1 to reverse a recent city Board of Zoning Adjustment ruling that limited the number of patrons allowed in the hotel’s banquet room and restaurant because of a lack of on-site parking. Councilman Bob Holmes dissented.

The zoning board had carried on a lengthy debate with Barnabey’s after the restaurant, at 3501 N. Sepulveda Blvd., lost the use of 43 parking spaces at the Manhattan Men’s Club across the street.

Although homeowners told the zoning board in April that there were no parking problems in the neighborhood, the board cut in half the number of patrons allowed in the restaurant nightly, and reduced the weekend use of the banquet room.

Just hours before Tuesday’s council meeting, Barnabey’s struck a deal with Allied-Signal Inc. in El Segundo to use 50 parking spaces near the hotel. Barnabey’s attorney, Julian A. Pollok, told the council that the spaces will be used for employee parking.