STUDIO CITY : Alcohol Permit for Mini-Mall Patio OKd

The Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals granted a popular mini-mall permission to serve alcohol in an open-air patio Tuesday, over objections by area homeowners that the mall lacks sufficient parking.

The board granted the permit to the Laurel Promenade, at the corner of Ventura and Laurel Canyon boulevards, after its developer submitted a new parking plan that improves circulation in the parking lot and encourages people to use an underground lot on the property.

The permit is good for one year, after which it will have to undergo a review.

“They didn’t consider the facts in making this decision,” said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn., who opposed the permit. “An intensification of the use is going to exacerbate an already impossible problem.”

Nearby residents want to patronize the shopping center--which includes the Daily Grill, Louise’s Trattoria and the Gaucho Grill--but are fed up with the parking problems, Lucente said. He predicted that the association would appeal the board’s decision to the City Council.

“I’m happy, although we were hoping for a grant longer than a year,” said Tom O’Brien, planning consultant for the developer, the Laurel Center Group. O’Brien said representatives from the Laurel Center Group will meet with homeowners and staff from City Councilman Joel Wachs’ office to see if they further adjust the parking plan to resolve residents’ concerns.

The developer filed for the conditional use permit to serve alcohol on the patio in October. The board’s decision is a reversal of a Feb. 9, 1994, decision by a city zoning administrator to deny the Laurel Group’s application based on concerns about insufficient parking.