STUDIO CITY : Mall Can’t Serve Alcohol in Patio

City officials denied a popular mini-mall permission to serve alcohol in an open-air patio because the mall lacks sufficient parking.

Albert Landini, a city zoning administrator, said the owners of the Laurel Promenade on Ventura Boulevard failed to provide enough parking spaces, more than one valet to park cars and reneged on a promise to not develop the 2,021-square-foot covered patio.

“What they submitted just wasn’t adequate,” Landini said. “We found that some parking spaces were unusable. They had equipment in them or gas meter boxes.”

In addition, Landini said owners of the property had only one valet to park cars on a two-level parking area and had previously promised the city that they would use the patio area for pedestrian traffic only.

“We will deal with this as we have addressed everything else,” said Tom O’Brien of Handelman Catherman Inc., who represents the owners of the mini-mall.

The setback is the latest in a string of problems for the mini-mall. Residents protested the mall’s opening when the developer failed to install additional turn lanes at the congested intersection as promised and again when the developer installed more signs than is allowed under local ordinances.

O’Brien said the owners will appeal the decision this week.

Residents said owners of the mini-mall failed to recognize the scale of the parking problem.

“It is going to be hard to plan with what is already a built-in parking disaster,” said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn. “The mini-mall’s demands are too big for the space allotted. They are trying to squeeze in too much.”

Tom Henry, planning deputy to Councilman Joel Wachs, said the decision was valid.

“It was not working. The cars are on top of each other. No one would want to park there,” he said, calling the mall owners “a victim of their own success.”