SEAL BEACH : Up in Arms Over Hours for Business

It’s a long-running debate with clear battle lines.

On one side are restaurateurs along Seal Beach’s cozy Main Street who say the city is making it difficult for them to do business. On the other are residents who live in the Main Street neighborhood who say noisy patrons make it difficult for them to sleep at night.

The issue has boiled over in recent weeks.

Some merchants now openly accuse some city officials of being “anti-business” while residents, fearing their beloved Main Street is becoming a late-night drinking haunt, have taken to staking out one restaurant to see if it is violating its alcohol license.

The bitterness that colors the dispute was on display at a recent Planning Commission meeting when the SeaSide Grill on Main Street sought to join a handful of other restaurants allowed to operate past midnight. More than 80 people went to City Hall for the contentious meeting, marked by cheers and jeers.

Though a decision was delayed until November, two planning commissioners expressed doubts about extending the restaurants’ hours when so many residents opposed the move.

Business leaders say it is a familiar refrain from a city that in its quest to keep residents content have shortchanged local merchants.

“This town is going backward. We don’t get cooperation. When we try to make our business a success, people hold up a blockade,” said John Baker, owner of Nip ‘N Stuff Liquor and a former head of the local business association. “The residents always come first.”

Rather than stymieing commercialism, Baker and others said City Hall should improve the business climate by allowing restaurants to extend their hours, erecting highway signs that advertise the district and improving lighting and parking along Main Street.

Some merchants even dream of seeing the strip grow into a little Belmont Shore or Newport Beach, where throngs of patrons go for food, drinks and entertainment.

That dream is Roger and Jeri West’s nightmare. The couple moved to Seal Beach 25 years ago in search of a decent place to raise their children. They said alcohol sales on Main Street are degrading both their quality of life and property values.

“Are we trying to compete with Bourbon Street in New Orleans?” Roger West asked. “Main Street is already a magnet for late-night guzzlers from all over the area.”

Like other residents, they fear extending the businesses’ hours will dirty the bedroom community’s image, “attracting the wrong kind of people who come here for the wrong reasons,” Jeri West said.

Residents often complain of being kept up at night by loud patrons who urinate and vomit on their streets. Some even accused one restaurant of violating the terms of its alcohol license.

A resident at the meeting alleged she caught the violation during her own stakeout several weeks ago, saying that from her parked car, she saw patrons being served liquor after closing time.

Whatever decision is made on SeaSide’s application and future requests from other businesses to extend operating hours, residents hope it will be based on the principle expressed by Planning Commissioner Joseph Orsini: “Seal Beach is a residential area with a commercial strip that runs through it. It’s not a commercial strip with residential area” around it.