Historic Building Reaps Parking Benefits

As property owners weigh the pros and cons of having historic status bestowed on their structures, Sam Goldstein, owner of the historic Heisler Building at the corner of South Coast Highway and Laguna Avenue, is definitely reaping the benefits.

Current home to Tommy Bahama’s restaurant and retail store on the first floor, a mid-level restaurant space formerly occupied by Rock ‘N Fish, and a recently approved rooftop deck, the building is an E-rated structure, the highest rating, and is listed on the city’s Historic Register.

Based on that status, the City Council Tuesday approved permits to allow for 132 additional seats to be divided among the building’s two restaurants and newly approved rooftop deck, bringing the total allowed seating to 510.

Given the strict parking requirements linked to restaurant seating capacity downtown, that is no small accomplishment.

Laguna’s parking ordinance stipulates that restaurants provide one parking space for every 100 square feet, or one space for every three seats, whichever is more restrictive. And if they can’t produce actual parking spaces, they must pay a steep in-lieu fee. Figuring out compliance to this ordinance is what made it so challenging for Shirley’s Bagels to move from their smaller space to a larger space across the parking lot. The new space included more seating, requiring Shirley’s to provide more parking.

But historic structures get a break, and E-rated structures are allowed up to a 75 percent reduction of their parking requirement, based on the extent to which they are preserved and/or enhanced.

Given Goldstein’s meticulous restoration of the Heisler Building, the Heritage Committee recommended approval of the full 75 percent parking reduction back in 2008.

This means that the Council was able to approve a permit allowing 510 restaurant seats in the Heisler Building, even though the property only technically claims 45 parking spaces (22 grandfathered spaces and 23 in-lieu certificates). Required parking for the 510 seats comes to 170 parking spots, but the 73.53 percent parking reduction allowed by their historic status forgives 125 of those spaces.

Because the tenants weren’t locked down and the actual need for seating was undetermined in 2008, the City Council heeded the Planning Commission’s recommendation to grant Goldstein only a 54.5 percent reduction in required parking, rather the full 75 percent allowed. Subsequently, as the tenants came in and uses were defined, he twice requested and received permits for increased restaurant seating and exemptions from parking requirements under the historic property incentive.

Last month Goldstein returned to the Planning Commission to seek an even greater parking reduction to accommodate the addition of 132 more seats in an unusual arrangement. Thirty of the seats would be added to the second-floor restaurant and 21 to the rooftop deck. The remaining 81 seats would be “banked” for future use, in the event, for example, that Tommy Bahama might want to convert some if the first-floor retail space to restaurant space. The Planning Commission voted 3-2 to recommend approval of this use last month, but only on the condition that once a use was determined for those 81 banked seats, a new or amended permit must be approved.

Notably, the two planning commissioners who dissented, Norm Grossman and Anne Johnson, were troubled by the banked seats. Grossman also raised concerns that the permit might complicate potential efforts to decouple parking and use, and he pointed out that the new parking reduction precluded an in-lieu fee equivalent to $650,000. Further, he noted, allowing 510 seats in the building put the use right up to the edge of having a negative impact on traffic.

Exceeding the 510-seat threshold would require measures to offset the impact on traffic, said Community Development Director Greg Pfost.

Council member Toni Iseman pointed out that a mitigation measure such as having employees park in remote lots rather than taking up spaces in nearby neighborhoods would be desirable and suggested Goldstein might have volunteered such a plan even though he avoided triggering mitigation requirements by one seat.

“I think the Planning Commission got it right,” said Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow. “This is exactly how the ordinance was intended to work.”

The Council voted 4-1 to issue the permits, with Iseman dissenting because of the impact on the neighborhood and “lack of attempt to address the employee parking issue.”