Updated: Proposed Indian Restaurant at Washington and Altadena to Get May 1 Hearing

 A proposed 5,000 square-foot retail building at the northeast corner of Washington Boulevard and Altadena Drive that will include an Indian restaurant and several retail shops will get a May 1 hearing at the Altadena Town Council Land Use Committee, according to county planners.

The hearing will be to discuss a permit for the consumption of alcoholic beverages at the restaurant.

The permit was discussed at a hearing of the County Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday, but the Commission opted to delay voting on the permit to allow the Land Use Committee to weigh in on it, according to Anthony Curzi of the County Regional Planning Department.

The county's commission will then hear the issue and vote on it at its May 2 meeting.

The timing is crucial for the project to succeed, according to Burke Farrar of Odyssey Development Services, who represents the applicant. Building permits for the project are supposed to be pulled by May 7, and getting the permit to serve alcohol is a key part of the project, he said.  The expected revenue from those sales is one of the assets that his client's financing is dependent on, he added.

Farrar requested at the hearing Wednesday that the commission simply vote on the permit and not go through the Town Council.  He said that in all the emails between the county and himself or his client from November to February, nobody mentioned the need to go before the Town Council. 

However, Farrar told Patch he believes the commission made a "fair decision" and said that the project will be fine as long as he can get the permit approved at the May 2 hearing.

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.  

Kumar will continue to practice medicine and will act as owner of the Indian restaurant, Farrar said.  He noted that he has also represented two other local Indian establishments, , in South Pasadena, and Mezbaan Indian Cuisine, in Pasadena.  He said it is likely that Kumar would make decisions about the restaurant based on discussions with those owners.

The restaurant would take up at 1,600 square feet of the development, leaving the rest of the building for other retail use, he said.

The May 1 Land Use Committee hearing is at 7 p.m. at the and is open to the public.

Updated 10:15 a.m: The alcohol permit for the proposed Indian restaurant may also get a hearing at the Altadena Town Council meeting on May 15, according to Curzi

Staff will likely recommend a continuance at its May 2 meeting to allow the Town Council to discuss the permit.

Though the applicant's representative told the county there is a May 7 deadline to pull permits for construction on the 5,000 square foot retail building, county staff has found the applicant is eligible for a six-month extension on those permits, according to Curzi.

If the County Regional Planning Commission agrees to delay the May 2 hearing, it would then be able to next hear the issue on May 16 after the Town Council has a chance to discuss it.

Editor's note: The headline to this story originally said the restaurant would be located at Washington and Allen.