Santa Monica : Restaurant Permit Extended
Madame Wu won at the Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday.
The Santa Monica restaurateur was granted a 90-day extension to obtain building permits for a 61,650-foot commercial-retail project on the site of her Chinese restaurant at 2221 Wilshire Blvd.
An attorney for Wu argued that the extra time was only fair since the city planning staff had given mixed signals about whether the building had to be redesigned to conform to new regulations. Planning chief Paul Berlant confirmed the developer’s account.
But opponents of the project accused Wu and co-developer Century West Development of using the confusion as a smoke screen because they didn’t have the financing to go forward with the project.
The majority of council members said it was unfair to reconsider the merits of a project they had already approved more than a year ago, but two council members disagreed. Mayor Ken Genser said it was appropriate, in the current slow-growth atmosphere to take another look at the project. “We don’t want projects like that anymore,” he said. Councilman Kelly Olsen joined Genser in the 5-2 vote.
City Atty. Robert M. Myers advised the council that he would have trouble defending a lawsuit if the extension was denied.
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