Outdoor grilling faces end

CITY HALL — A citywide push to force Glendale’s once numerous open-air grills indoors claimed its final and longtime delinquent restaurant Wednesday after the Planning Commission voted to uphold the illegality of its outdoor barbecue.

Karoun Restaurant lost its appeal to the zoning administrator’s decision in July to deny a variance that would have allowed the south Glendale restaurant and banquet hall to maintain the outdoor barbecue grill, despite arguments from its representatives that city officials had told them years ago that the operation was legal.

That prompted the restaurant’s owner, Sam Arutyunyan, to appeal to the commission.

Speaking on behalf of her father, Angela Arutyunyan told the commission that beyond the bureaucratic confusion caused by the Planning Department’s November 2000 approval of the barbecue — an action city planners now say was made in error — the grill is only used intermittently, produces little smoke and has elicited no complaints from neighboring businesses or residents.

While several commissioners acknowledged that the city’s approval mistake — which failed to sync with a long-standing municipal code forcing all business be conducted within a business’ structure — had produced an “unfortunate circumstance,” Commissioner Gary Gero told supporters of the restaurant that “it doesn’t rise to the level of overturning the zoning administrator’s decision.”

The ruling ends nine years of enforcement ambiguity and takes effect in 10 days, but Karoun owners have 15 days to appeal the commission’s decision to the City Council.

Angela Arutyunyan said she did not yet know what action her father would take.

If he decides to move the barbecue indoors, it would represent that last of about 12 “chronic” outdoor grillers to be brought into compliance with a city ordinance banning business operations — including grilling — outside of anchored buildings, said Sam Engel, director of Neighborhood Services Department, which enforces city codes.

Only car dealerships, garden nurseries, Christmas tree lots and pumpkin patches are exempt from the code.

“I’m extremely pleased with the Planning Commission’s decision to uphold the city’s municipal code,” said Jolene Taylor, who has long sought to bring restaurants into compliance with the city’s ban.

During Wednesday’s hearing, she countered assertions by Karoun representatives that the grill had a minimal impact on the surrounding area, telling the commission the barbecue produced a “tremendous amount of smoke” that had “indisputable effects” on nearby residents.

Outdoor grilling was a contentious issue two years ago, with restaurateurs calling the ordinance prohibiting the practice anti-Armenian since most of the violators were Armenian restaurants and banquet halls.

The City Council at the time failed to approve an exception for outdoor grilling amid a tense debate that many proponents of the ban had tied to banquet hall use in general.

 JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.