City, restaurant talk settlement

GLENDALE — A potential legal showdown between the city and the owners of The Montrose Collection, who have been charged with violating zoning laws for operating their restaurant primarily as a banquet hall, may be avoided if a proposed settlement is accepted, attorneys said.

Citing an ongoing settlement discussion, attorneys would not disclose the terms of the proposal, but Derek Tabone, who represents Montrose Collection owners Arman and Takui Aivazian, said it could fully clear his clients of the three misdemeanor charges related to operating the restaurant primarily as a banquet hall in violation of zoning laws.

“It’s intended to be a universal settlement,” said Tabone, who offered the proposal to city officials Tuesday. “It doesn’t make sense to do it piecemeal.”

The proposal, then, would mitigate outstanding parking deficiencies tied to alleged use violations, which in turn are the cause of the criminal complaints filed against the Aivazians, Tabone said.

Unrelated to the proposed settlement, a Glendale Superior Court judge on Thursday continued the criminal pretrial hearing to Nov. 2 to allow time for further development of the case, which will proceed as planned, said Dorine Martirosian, the deputy assistant city attorney handling the case.

Michael Garcia, chief assistant city attorney, said he could not comment on the settlement negotiations.

The city attorney’s office brought the charges against the Aivazians and ATNA Enterprises, corporate partners in owning the The Montrose Collection on 2831 Honolulu Ave., after the Board of Zoning Appeals in June upheld an earlier decision to revoke the restaurant’s parking reduction permit.

The permit was contingent on adhering to a 2002 ordinance that restaurants use no more than 29% of their facilities for private parties.

The Aivazians have maintained that since The Montrose Collection was operating before the 2002 ordinance was introduced, it should be exempt from the 29% threshold.

But in revoking the parking reduction permit, the city’s zoning administrator and Board of Zoning Appeals determined that the restaurant’s 1,000-square-foot expansion in 2005 had stripped it of its grandfather rights and that it was operating primarily as a banquet hall in violation of zoning laws.