Restaurant on Newport Ave Has Until September 30 to Comply Without Fines
Luigi’s restaurant at the corner of Newport Avenue and Bacon Street has been hit with potentially $1,200 a day fines for four code violations by the city. The new Ocean Beach restaurant, owned by Luigi Agostini, was notified by the city on August 20 that they were in violation of the following:
- A trash enclosure (77- inches in height) blocking driveway visibility and a 30-inch CMU wall blocking access to required off-street parking, have been constructed in the driveway.
- A 123.5 sq. ft Conex box (portable storage container) in the north east corner of the parking lot has also eliminated a required parking space.
- Additionally, a new concrete slab has been poured on top of an existing blacktop parking lot without City approval.
- Partition walls for a commercial walk-in freezer have been installed at north side of parking lot. A new exterior opening has been created and a new entrance door has been installed at the south side of building.
The restaurant was given until September 30 to correct the violations or else it would be subject to a $300 fine for each of the four violations every day until compliance. That adds up to $1,200 in potential daily fines. The restaurant is also subject to reimbursing the city for “re-inspection” fees, ranging from $264 to $295.
The city cited the following violations of the San Diego Municipal Code (SDMC):
- SDMC §129.0202 – When a Building Permit is Required
- SDMC §142.0310 – General Fence Regulations for All Zones (Visibility Area)
- SDMC §142.0510 – General Parking Regulations (Obstructions)
- §142.0560 Development and Design Regulations for Parking Facilities
- SDMC §§121.0202-121.0203 provides the authority regarding enforcement of the Land Development Code.
- SDMC §121.0302 requires compliance with the Land Development Code, specifies these violations are not permitted, and provides authority for the abatement of public nuisances.
The restaurant was ordered, in order to avoid administrative civil penalties, to correct the violations by September 30, 2021:
- Remove the Conex box (portable storage container) from the required parking space. The Conex box also requires a Building permit if it is to remain on the property.
- Obtain required Building Permit(s) and successfully complete all required inspections
- Remove the trash enclosure and CMU wall from across the driveway entrance.
- Restore the parking lot to its original permitted configuration.
- All off-street parking spaces and aisles shall be kept clear of any temporary or permanent obstructions.
- Remove partition walls for commercial walk-in freezer.
- Obtain permit for new exterior opening and new entrance door.
The city stated it used the following factors in determining the amount of the fines:
- the nature and seriousness of the violation
- the impact of the violation upon the community
City code enforcers inspected the property, the city stated, on July 16 and August 11 this year and observed the violations. Luigi Agostini has a business address of 4662 Ashby Street San Diego, CA 92115. The property itself is owned by Orams Enterprises Inc., with a business address of CEO Khairi T. Mansour at 9189 Vista Entrada Lakeside, CA 92040.
Prior to Luigi’s moving in and still during the pandemic, this is how Bravos set up its parking lot.
Many OBceans, including the OB Planning Board, are concerned about property owners flagrantly violating the development code, and disregarding the community. The Planning Board discussed potential violations by the restaurant at their August 4, 2021 meeting.
Here is the August 20, 2021 Order:
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I hope they are able to work this out. They kind of fill the void left by Newport Pizza and Ale House.
The required parking spaces should be left to the business owner. If that business benefits by better using that space for other uses it should be up to them. It is an absurd holdover of 1960’s urban planning that our city requires these tiny shops to dedicate space for our enormous vehicles.
I appreciate the spirit of accessibility of the parking space law, but times have changed. I am much more irritated going to obviously suburban areas with near total reliance upon cars and being charged to park by the proprietor. Radys children’s hospital and ucsd health are unscrupulous in wringing money from their customers, but that’s healthcare in America.
Wow! What a relief for those business owners who don’t want to provide for any parking! In fact, why should business owners provide for anything? Why should business owners have to comply with those stupid, time-consuming laws about hygiene and sanitation? And especially why should they have to disclose the real contents of the products they sell? Let the buyer beware! Why do bars have to close at 2am? Let them stay open all night if it “benefits the business owner”. Don’t put any of those draconian, freedom-restricting rules on business owners, no sirree!
So do you have list of other laws you think people should be able to start ignoring because you don’t agree with them? Last time I checked we are supposed to be a society that is based on laws, not opinions.
Frank,
you are a sorry S.O.B., have you ever tried to run a small business in San Diego, you can stick with the Domino’s pizza, I feel sorry for you.
The restaurant is not being forced to provide parking, the business already had parking. They are being fined for taking it away and building without permits.
I agree with Will here. I don’t consider not providing parking spaces in any way close to being the same thing as not following health/hygiene and sanitation requirements nor the same as allowing bars to be open past 2. The other two locations have no parking spaces (other than the limited public parking on the street). In fact, many restaurants and businesses have no parking spaces where the other two locations are. And it’s a pizza place, not a vital service like a medical facility or even a food store. Now if it already had its own parking which they decided to use for other purposes as Geoff mentioned that’s different (tho I don’t know the legalities or specifics involved). The only people who would suffer from lack of its own parking would be the business itself due to lack of patronage from said lack of parking, tho most people who go there are either locals who live within walking distance or people who are already parked blocks away. And to be clear, I’m talking about the business’s own parking, not the street parking along Newport.
Chris, by taking away the private parking you are putting more stress on the public street parking, which has a ripple effect that causes problems for all of the businesses, not just Luigi’s. They obviously broke the law here, otherwise there would not be fines mandated by the city.
If allowed, they should be charged per parking spot used. Carmel is imposing $842 per space per month. That is reasonable. After all, not all restaurants can put up a parklet so it makes sense to charge for extra space especially when it increases revenue.
oops! meant to post this under the outdoor eating areas comments. Oh well!
ICO public parking spots, yes we should. We (the public) own it, so we should collect rent (via the city). ICO converting a privately-owned lot, that action would shift parking demand to the public parking areas, so some monthly fee should be charged for that too. Our city needs the money to pay for its other RE screw-ups, so shouldn’t be giving away that space for free.
As you may know, every post here is automatically reposted on the OB Rag facebook page, and geez, the pushback on facebook to this article was surreal. The Rag was called all kinds of names for suggesting that business owners follow building codes, that we were evil for calling out Luigi’s for their failures – ‘they’re just trying to make a clean OB’ and ‘slim government just wants to make money off good businesses while allowing the canopies and tents at the beach to go scot-free…’ Obviously, Luigi’s had some friends just attack us for this article. Nice going ….
Update 9/21/2021: The property owner/occupier is in the process of demolition of the unpermitted construction.
Anyone arguing for Luigi’s is biased.
This violation is beyond incompetent. To pour that much concrete without city approval is just stupid. The concrete pad HAS to be engineered. The concrete HAS to receive psi testing. There probably needs control joints, and some footings below the pad to keep it from shifting.
They added an exterior door. LOL. They are structurally modifying a building without city approval? Did an engineer design this? WTF. I really hope this one is not true.
What they did is stupid on so many levels, and anyone arguing that the city should simply sit on their hands and leave “Luigi” alone has no idea how egregious these violations are.
With all that said, I like the pizza. We need it here in OB. Im sick of going to Luigi’s in MB and Bronx just to get a decent slice. I hope they fix their problems ad stick around for a long time.
FYI, The Luigi’s in MB is not affiliated with this one (Same name but no connection). This OB store IS affiliated with the North Park and Golden Hill locations. Despite the stupidity I agree in that I hope they work it out. The other two locations are great and this OB location would fill the gap left by Newport Pizza and Ale House.
Ummmm a little chatter on Avenue someone turned them in?? I’ve heard their Pizza is Yummy!! PS: I would hope the Merchants could work it out one on one!