Vice Mayor Seeks Zoning-Appeals Review of North Lake Banquet Permit

Vice Mayor Jess Rivas will ask the City Council on Monday to send a North Lake Avenue banquet-hall permit — one the city has already approved, in the district she represents — to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a fresh review.

The permit is not a pending proposal. According to the decision documents, a city Hearing Officer approved Conditional Use Permit No. 7100 and Certificate of Exception No. 449 on June 3, and the decision letter set the approval to take effect June 16.

The approval covers the Elli Banquet facility at 1453 and 1467 North Lake Avenue and 874 Ladera Street.

What the approval allows is the substance any review would examine. The decision documents show it permits a club, lodge and private meeting hall serving a full line of alcohol with hours running as late as 12:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, valet parking on-site and at an off-site lot at 1416–1424 North Lake Avenue, and events capped at 156 guests.

The Certificate of Exception consolidates three parcels into one. The site is zoned CL-SP-1b within the North Lake Specific Plan and sits about 50 feet from a single-family residential zone to the west, the documents state.

Monday’s action is narrow. The agenda lists the item as “consideration of a request” from Rivas to call the case for review; the decision documents state that a member of the City Council or Planning Commission “may… request” such a review, and the precise procedural effect of Monday’s consideration is not spelled out in the supplied records. Nothing about the permit changes at this meeting, and whether the appeals board ultimately takes up the case — and what it would decide — is undetermined.

Monday’s public meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249. Public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker, with remote participation available by livestream.