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Hunan Seafood Restaurant LetterHUNAN SEAFOOD RESTAURANT 8772 Valley Blvd Rosemead, CA 91770 November 13, 2012 City of Rosemead City Council 8838 E. Valley Boulevard Rosemead, CA 91770 Dear Mayor and Members of the City Council: Thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal from the Planning Commission's denial of my request for a Conditional Use Permit to serve beer and wine at the Hunan Seafood Restaurant. I have been a businessman in the City of Rosemead for over 20 years. At one time I owned the auto shop where the current McDonald's is located and I own an auto body shop on Garvey Boulevard. I leased the building housing my restaurant in 2004. My lease expires in 2024. As you know the restaurant business in Rosemead is very competitive and in order to be successful you need to be able to distinguish your business from all the others. My goal in seeking this CUP is to expand my restaurant and to provide beer and wine that can be served with our very spicy food. I also want to develop a sports bar environment in the rear of the restaurant, where people will use the front of the restaurant if they are looking for formal dining, and use the rear if they are looking for a more relaxed dining experience. For that reason the seating arrangements are different in the back, where every booth has its own independently operated flat screen television. Although it is not before you tonight, my ultimate goal is to also obtain an entertainment license that will allow me to provide karaoke and dancing at some future date. I provided the staff with a floor plan that included 14 changes and modifications I was prepared to make to address their concerns about the operation of the rear portion of the restaurant. We agree on most of the changes but they have added some requests that I believe are unreasonable and I am proposing alternatives to those proposals which I believe will achieve the same result. These are the conditions on which we both agree. First, that the entire restaurant will operate as one business with the same staff, menu and services in both areas. Second, that the corridor linking the two areas will be widened by removing the door jams and raising the headers. (Exhibit A) Third, the two -way glass located in the hallway will be removed. City Council November 13, 2012 Page 2 Fourth, that the doors will be removed from the storage areas in the rear and access will only be provided through one locked door. The second doorway to the storage area will be sealed. Fifth, the exit at the rear of the building will be for emergencies only and will be alarmed. All customer access will be through the front doors on Valley Boulevard. Sixth, the walls in the rear room will be painted the same light color as walls in the front room. The Building and Safety staff has also recommended several changes regarding a modesty panel in the men's room, direction of the emergency exit door, number of urinals and handicap accessibility of the cashier counter. We are able to comply with all of those requests. We would Propose the following alternatives to the staff recommendations: Staff has proposed the removal of the service counter shown in Exhibit 1. Since this area is the only area in the restaurant with the appropriate sinks and refrigeration for alcohol, we would propose to keep the area and construct an "U' shaped wall on top of the existing bar that would screen the service area from view. This wall would also prevent the existing counter from being used as a seating area for patrons. Further we would propose to place a flat screen television on the wall to further discourage anyone from trying to sit at the counter. Exhibit 1A is the existing counter at the front of the restaurant. It is used as a cashier stand and warming table for appetizers served to patrons. It does not have facilities for refrigeration, ice or proper cleaning of glasses. It cannot serve the same purpose as the equipment in Exhibit 1. Both counters are necessary to service the restaurant. Staff has proposed that the height of the existing u holstered booths be lowered to 4 feet. We would propose that the booths be modified by cutting openings in the panels and adding glass inserts to allow easy visual examination of the room and to allow more light in the room. Exhibit 2 demonstrates the cutout in an end panel and Exhibit 3 indicates how additional cutouts could be included in the side panels while still maintaining the sound dampening effects of the higher panels. We believe that the higher panels are necessary to reduce sound from the TVs and believe that the glass inserts will address the Sheriffs concerns about visibility. Staff also expressed concern about the size of the tables in the booths. We believe that the tables are appropriate for the size of the booths and can be used for dining. See Exhibit 3A and 3B. City Council November 13, 2012 Page 3 Staff has requested that the lighting be consistent throughout the restaurant. There are 28 light fixtures in the rear portion of the restaurant and several of the walls are lined with mirrors. Unlike the front of the restaurant, there are no windows. Matching the light levels is very difficult. We would propose to increase the wattage of the existing 28 fixtures from 75 to 100 watts and add 6 to 8 more if necessary to increase the light levels. We also believe that when the glass inserts are added to the booths, the lighting and visibility will be improved. We are willing to work with staff to achieve light levels that they think are appropriate, given the limitations on the room. Staff has recommended that an existing storage torage room on the west side be removed and converted to a customer corridor. Exhibit 4 and 4A is a narrow storage room located along the westerly wall of the restaurant, behind the restrooms. We do not believe that opening this corridor will improve circulation in the restaurant. We would propose to leave this storage room in place and reconsider the staff recommendation at the time the entertainment license comes before your Council. Staff has asked that the existing dance floor and DJ platform be removed. We would propose that rather than remove the parquet flooring (Exhibit 5) and platform area (Exhibit 5A) that we be allowed to cover the floor with carpeting that could be removed at some future date if the entertainment license is approved. We would add dining tables to the carpeted area to prevent its use for anything other than dining. There will be no piano or any karaoke equipment. We would propose to add a pedestal mounted flat screen televisions to the platform area to prevent its use as a stage or entertainment area. Our goal is to avoid the expense of removing these improvements only to have to reinstall them if an entertainment license is granted at some future date. Our proposed modifications will preclude their use for dancing, karaoke or entertainment. Staff has recommended against an Entertainment License at this time We would like to propose that we be allowed to bring forward the existing application for an Entertainment License after six months of successful operation of the expanded restaurant. At that time the staff and Council could conduct a review of the CUP and the effectiveness of the changes we have proposed and implemented. If it will give the Council further confidence in my desire to run a legitimate family restaurant, I am willing to agree to further conditions that would specify gpprQpnate attire for the staff of the restaurant, the installation of security cameras with recording capability and an annual review process for verifying compliance with the conditions adopted by the Council. City Council November 13, 2012 Page 4 I want to make my restaurant something that the City of Rosemead will be proud to have in the City. I am willing to consider any reasonable condition to satisfy the Council and the staff of my desire to create a successful family business. I hope that you will consider the alternative conditions that I have proposed and will provide direction to the staff to return with a final set of conditions that will allow me to proceed with my expansion plans without having to spend an exorbitant amount of money. Thank you. 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