CITY REJECTS DANCING, DRINKING RESTAURANT'S PLANS BLOCKED.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Siding with neighbors, the Glendale City Council rejected plans for a $3 million, 500-person restaurant - the city's largest - to serve alcohol or allow dancing on its premises.

In a split vote Tuesday, the council agreed with neighbors who feared the 13,000-square-foot restaurant Renaissance at 1236 S. Central Ave. would generate too much traffic, too much noise and parking problems.

Residents also expressed concerns that the restaurant was intended to be a banquet hall where large numbers of people would arrive and depart at the same time. Owners had planned to make the restaurant available for private events like wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs.

``In all good conscience, any establishment going in serving 480 people and with a 100-person staff and only providing 100 parking spaces, you reach one conclusion - that it will impact the community in terms of traffic and safety,'' said Councilman Dave Weaver.

Weaver, Glendale Mayor Frank Quintero and Councilmen Gus Gomez voted to deny a permit to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol and public dancing at the restaurant. Councilmen Bob Yousefian and Rafi Manoukian argued for granting the permit.

The restaurant is owned by A&K Holdings, two of whose owners are Arsen Djougourian and Karo Papyan. Owners did not say whether they would pursue the alcohol permit alone.

Yousefian, who served on the Board of Zoning Adjustments for five years and the council for two years, said the permit rejection was an example of the city applying special scrutiny to development applications from Armenians.

``If there's an `ian' or a `yan' at the end of your last name, you're under a microscope and you're scrutinized very, very heavily,'' said Yousefian, who did not cite specific instances of city bias.

Tuesday's vote reversed action taken by the council two weeks ago, in which Gomez, Yousefian and Manoukian instructed staff members to draw up a proposed permit - including more than 20 restrictions on the establishment to ease traffic and noise concerns. The number of restrictions ultimately grew to 29.

Renaissance's owners A&K Holdings had agreed to all the conditions.

The city had granted the restaurant a permit to open with 56 parking spaces - and critics chastised city planners for raising complaints about parking late in the process. That restaurant permit is still in effect.

Without the alcohol license, city officials believe that the city's rule that limits the amount of restaurant space that could be rented out for private parties to 30 percent would still apply.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com