Convenience store near Venice Canals would become an indoor-outdoor restaurant
By Gary Walker
Tesuque Village Market hopes to seat 45 diners
Not many neighborhoods would take issue with a corner market becoming a restaurant. The Venice Canals is not like many neighborhoods, and Tesuque Village Market — formerly known as Kim’s Market — sits at an unusual intersection: the corner of Mildred and Ocean avenues, just a few car lengths from where Mildred crosses busy South Venice Boulevard.
For the past five years, owners of the 904-square-foot market have been seeking to shrink the market area to 324 square feet and convert 580 square feet into a restaurant with alcohol service and seating for 45 people: 25 indoors, 18 outdoors.
“We see it as a local bodega — the type of place where one can walk to meet a friend and share a snack in a quaint, casual environment or take a hot meal home. The market portion will still be open for convenience items. We see this as huge amenity for the neighborhood,” said Robert Thibodeaux, a local architect representing Tezuke LLC, controlled by market owners Alicia Searle and Michael Stein.
Thibodeaux is also a member of the Venice Neighborhood Council, which voted to support the project last October. Back in 2014, a different iteration of the council rejected a 60-seat version of the market/restaurant concept.
A city Planning Department administrator hearing to approve the market-to-restaurant conversion is set for 10 a.m. Monday, July 15, at the West Los Angeles Municipal Building at 1645 Corinth Ave. In addition to a conditional use permit to serve alcohol and a coastal development permit for the change of use, the owners are also requesting a CEQA exemption.
Opponents say vehicle traffic at Mildred, Ocean and South Venice can’t handle any more car trips at rush hour, and that changing a market into a restaurant that serves alcohol is not the best use of land for a residential neighborhood.
“Owners of adjacent homes purchased their homes with the expectation that the residential neighborhood would maintain its residential character, and that a nearby property would not be allowed to change in a way that increases noise, traffic or creates a nuisance,” Dylan Porter, who lives nearby, wrote in a letter to planning officials.
So not many neighborhoods would take issue with a corner market becoming a restaurant. Really? Maybe you should have actually taken a look at what Tezuke has submitted to the planning department before you just praise their “local bodega” concept and repeat their sales pitch. This will be a 43 seat restaurant with 18 of those seats in an open air patio right up against residential properties. There will be no parking and the plans make it clear that the restaurant will be accessible from the Ocean Avenue side where people being dropped off and picked up will block traffic. There is no indication that they plan to restrict their hours so neighbors aren’t continually bothered by the noise, traffic etc. 7 days a week, every night until 2 AM. In the words of the applicant “the area has been identified as having an overconcentration of alcoholic beverage licenses (currently 16 instead of the 4 allowable by ABC) Yet, in their own words “This will not adversely affect community welfare because the use is part of a high resident and visitor serving area that attracts a far greater population than resides in the census tract. Since the site is located in a prime neighborhood…a restaurant serving alcoholic beverages is essential for the neighborhood.” According to Tezuke “the proposed project is in an area underserved by restaurants. (Once again, really?) According to Tezuke: “Venice is the second most popular tourist destination in Southern California, yet it has relatively low number of neighborhood restaurants in comparison to other beach communities.” Could this be because restaurants are located in commercial districts and not allowed to make residential neighborhoods unlivable. Tezuke is clearly planning to cater to tourists so maybe they should have located their so-called neighborhood bodega on Abbott Kinney or Washington Blvd. They couldn’t even be honest in their application about where their “bodega” is actually located claiming that it is 600-1000 feet away from Limonade and Zinc. Presumably you know the neighborhood you are writing about and neither of those restaurants is within 600-1000 feet of the corner of Mildred and Ocean Ave. Shame on the Argonaut for publishing as news, a slanted piece that denigrates local residents for fighting to ensure that a company can’t just buy up property and impose noise, traffic, parking problems on us because they think they are entitled to a piece of the tourist market.