Coastal Panel Gives Restaurant Slap on Wrist : Beaches: Gladstone’s had been cited for illegally expanding its dining area, claiming public beach parking as its own and building an unauthorized storage facility.

On paper, investigators with the California Coastal Commission appeared to have the goods on Gladstone’s-For-Fish, the popular eatery at Will Rogers State Beach.

A commission staff report last month cited the restaurant for seven violations of the state Coastal Act. Among them, it said, Gladstone’s had illegally expanded its dining area, claimed public beach parking as its own and built an unauthorized storage facility on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

But last week, the state panel, meeting in Huntington Beach, overlooked some violations and gave Gladstone’s a slap on the wrist for others.

The most severe punishment originally recommended by the commission’s staff was that the restaurant be prohibited from opening until after 5 p.m. on summer weekends and holidays, so that the parking spaces used by Gladstone’s customers could be freed for use by beach-goers.

After a concerted lobbying effort by the restaurant and its allies in county government, however, the staff dropped its call for weekend closings shortly before the commission was scheduled to vote on the matter and instead recommended several far milder measures--such as ordering changes in the restaurant’s signs to make clear that the property is open to the beach-going public, and requiring the restaurant to allow beach-goers to use its restrooms.

The vote to adopt the staff recommendations was 5 to 1. The lone dissenter, Commissioner Madelyn Glickfeld of Malibu, called the last-minute change by the staff in its recommendations for resolving the alleged violations “astonishing.”

The small number of commissioners who participated--barely enough for a quorum--made the vote itself unusual. Because of two vacancies and the absence of Chairman Thomas W. Gwyn, the panel, normally composed of 12 commissioners, considered the matter last Wednesday with only nine members--three of whom chose to leave the room right before the vote and returned soon afterward.

Meanwhile, opponents of the restaurant, including those who accused it of bullying beach-goers from using public beachfront, expressed outrage at what they called Gladstone’s favorable treatment.

“It’s obvious the vote was fixed,” said critic Karen Jackson of Pacific Palisades. Neighbors have long complained that Gladstone’s--at Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard--is a noise and traffic nuisance and that it interferes with public access to the beach.

Whatever its detractors may say about it, however, Gladstone’s is no ordinary restaurant.

With more than 1.3 million customers annually, it claims to be the largest restaurant in the West. It is also distinguished in another way. Because it leases state beach property that is administered by Los Angeles County, Gladstone’s last year put $1.2 million into the coffers of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, in addition to generating $1 million in sales taxes.

Critics of the restaurant accused the Coastal Commission of bending to pressure from county officials in overlooking the alleged violations.

“If anything, they should have their operating license revoked,” said Jack Allen, president of the 1,100-member Pacific Palisades Residents Assn. “Instead, what the commission did was reward years of wrongdoing.”

Among the commissioners who voted to approve the action was Mark Nathanson, who is also County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s appointee to the Small Craft Harbor Commission, which oversees the Department of Beaches and Harbors. Paul Flowers, who lobbied the coastal panel on behalf of the restaurant, has close ties to County Supervisor Deane Dana.

Testifying on behalf of the restaurant’s owners were Roger Osenbaugh, a former coastal commissioner hired by Gladstone’s as a consultant, and Chris Klinger, deputy director of the Department of Beaches and Harbors.

Klinger urged the commissioners to do nothing to harm the restaurant’s business, saying that the money the county collects from the lease represents nearly half of the county’s budget for beach maintenance.

“Obviously, the success of Gladstone’s is very important to us,” he said.

But Gladstone’s critics found little comfort in that argument.

“So it’s a big moneymaker for the county, but I thought the Coastal Commission’s job was to uphold the Coastal Act,” said Barbara Kohn, another Pacific Palisades resident. “What they’ve done--or should I say didn’t do--is outrageous.”

The staff report detailed violations that it said had occurred for years at the restaurant.

They included the addition of several hundred seats to its dining facilities without Coastal Commission approval; the use of portable kitchens to accommodate outdoor dining, and the erection of signs that not only violated the restaurant’s coastal permit, but also, staff members said, misled the public to believe that the property was private.

The staff report said that the county knew, or should have known, that the restaurant was not in compliance with state law.

In 1985, for example, owner Robert Morris and the county applied for a 1,250-square-foot addition to a public deck outside the restaurant, saying that it would not be used as a service area and no restaurant seating would be added.

However, after the commission gave its approval and the deck was built, the restaurant added 60 seats for diners on the deck.

Critics of the restaurant say that the public deck has become a de facto part of the restaurant and that the restaurant has made a practice of intimidating beach-goers from using the area.

As part of the commission’s action last week, the restaurant will now be required to post signs that the deck is public, and must maintain restrooms at the restaurant for public use.

Opponents have reserved their harshest criticism for the restaurant’s parking policy.

As concessionaire for the parking lot, the restaurant collects $5 from beach-goers to park there, or $2.50 if they are restaurant patrons.

Gladstone’s representatives insist that the $5 is actually a bargain, since other nearby beach parking lots charge $7. But critics contend that Gladstone’s employees use up the available free parking spaces along Pacific Coast Highway, and that beach-goers find valet parking in the lot beside the restaurant to be intimidating.

The commission’s only significant response to the parking problem was to put a three-year limit on the coastal permit it issued to Gladstone’s; normally its permits have no time limit. During those three years, Gladstone’s management is required to count available spaces at certain times on weekends and holidays to determine if access to beach-goers is impinged.

However, critics scoffed at the plan.

“That’s like asking Saddam Hussein to take his own count of nuclear weapons and report back to the U.N.,” said Allen, the Pacific Palisades civic leader.

* CANYON PROJECT APPROVED

The Coastal Commission, overruling its own staff, voted 6 to 4 to approve a plan to build 55 luxury homes in rugged Encinal Canyon near Malibu. J5