LAS VILLAS LINCOLN HEIGHTS

PROPOSED ALCOHOL LICENSE AND ARCADE BREWS CONTROVERSY IN LINCOLN HEIGHTS

By Carlos Morales
Publisher, The Voice (East Los Angeles newspaper)

A meeting was held on Wednesday, January 23rd at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church auditorium to inform the community of a proposed controversial project in Lincoln Heights that is being supported by Councilmember Ed Reyes.

EXCERPTS:

* Zoning Administrator Friedman approved the sale and dispensing of beer and wine and a variance to allow 100 video games on the premises. The facility will also be able to stay open for extended hours on weekends and will be open for business during school hours - including the video arcade.

* As expressed by attendees at the meeting held at the Sacred Heart Church auditorium, the major areas of concern are the location of the restaurant with it's proposed alcohol sales and video arcade environment next to three local schools. The project site is adjacent to Lincoln High School, Gates Street Elementary School and Little Flower Missionary House. The America Vietnam-Chinese Kwan Ying Buddhist Church is located within 500 feet of the Las Villas project boundary and within a 1000' radius of the project site is the Gates Street Early Education Center.

* Given the close proximity of the project to their location and the listed hours of operation for the Las Villas facility, sisters of the Carmelite Covenant at Little Flower Missionary House have stated that if the project is built with it's beer and wine license, the convent may have to relocate for the safety of the school's 100+ pre-school and pre-kinder children. The Carmelite nuns have resided at their Lincoln Heights place of worship since 1943.

* Parents of Little Flower students have organized in protest to the proposed project and the sisters have filed an appeal to the project. Next to the Las Villas site is Abraham Lincoln High School with a school population of over 2600 students. According to the LAUSD Superintendent's Strategic Plan for High Priority Schools report dated on December 13, 2007, the campus is a PI Status School with an API score of 593 placing it in the 17 lowest performing high school in the LAUSD system. Schools which fall into this performance index are in danger of take over by the California State Department of Education.

* Opponents of the project have cited that the ease of entry to the video arcade designed in the Las Villas building plans would lead to increase opportunities for truancy during school hours, an increase in after-school loitering and the failure of marginal students to go home and do much needed additional studying. Directly across from the proposed project is Gates Street Elementary School with a student population of approximately 830 students. Community opponents have expressed a concern that elementary school children will be in danger while crossing Lincoln Heights' main thoroughfare of North Broadway during peak traffic hours enroute to the video arcade at Las Villas.

* The Councilman and his staff have been advocates for the Las Villas project since its inception. The backers of Las Villas have been astute in their access to political support as evidenced by the various letters of support submitted in the project zoning application from State Senator Gloria Romero, Supervisor Gloria Molina, former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, and former LAPD Hollenbeck Division Captain Paul Pesquiera.

* There were questions left unanswered including a concern for the project's location and alcohol service in what is being billed as a family-oriented restaurant. During her presentation at the sparsely attended LHNC meeting (which was attended by THE VOICE), Ms. Corona on several occasions indicated that "We are targeting families with children at this facility". When asked by LHNC board member Tony Bukta "If you can't get a beer and wine license is this project economically feasible?", Ms Corona replied " We wouldn't get the loan from the bank." A concern voiced by opponents to the project is that if the facility is closed in the future, all granted variances including the liquor license and gaming variance needed for the video arcade, will be transferred to the site's new owner who may not have such a family-friendly venue in mind. Ms. Corona and Ms. Duarte are local business women who operate Teri's Fashion, a garment manufacturing facility in the industrial part of Lincoln Heights.

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This story will continue in the next issue of THE VOICE. The East Los Angeles Planning Commission meets on February 27, 2008 @ 4:30pm at the Ramona Hall in Highland Park. At the meeting, testimony in two separate appeals to the granted zoning variances will be heard and the public is invited to express their opinion on the future of Las Villas.

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