East Altadena Restaurant Alcohol Permit to be Discussed Tuesday

The Altadena Town Council Land Use Committee will hear a presentation at its Tuesday night meeting on a proposal to grant a permit to serve alcohol at a proposed Indian restaurant at the northeast corner of Altadena Drive and Washington Boulevard.

The restaurant is part of a that once housed a florist at a the strip mall at the corner.

The representatives of the owner of the property told Patch prior to a county hearing on the matter that the permit is a crucial part of the project as financing for the deal is contingent on alcohol sales being part of the revenue generated by the restaurant.  The permit would allow the sale of alcohol to restaurant patrons, not give permission to establish a liquor store.

The County Regional Planning Commission will ultimately make the decision on the permit, but Land Use Committee feedback could be part of the case presented to the commission.  The design and building permits for the project have already been approved by the county.

The commission is scheduled to hear the issue at its Wednesday meeting, but the county planner in charge of the case has told Patch that the recommendation to the commission on Wednesday will be to delay the hearing until May 16 to give the full Town Council a chance to discuss the issue at its May 15 meeting.

The hearing has already been delayed once: at the commission's April 19 hearing the commission opted to delay a vote to allow the Land Use Committee to hear the issue.  Representatives of the applicant at the time said a delay could jeopardize the applicant's ability to pull permits to start construction on time, but county planners say that the applicant will be able to extend that deadline.

The Land Use Committee meeting is at 7 p.m. at the and is open to the public.  

The owner of the property is Dr. Nirmal Kumar, who runs a medical practice at that location.  The new retail building would replace a small outlying building on the spot that used to house a florist.  

The restaurant would take up at 1,600 square feet of the development, leaving the rest of the building for other retail use, according to Burke Farrar of Odyssey Development Services, who represents Kumar.

Editor's note: The original version of this story said the hearing would be about a liquor license, which is issued by the state.  The hearing will be about a conditional use permit to serve alcohol, which is issued by the county.