Here are a few items the council...

Here are a few items the council considered Tuesday.

NEWPORT BOULEVARD MARTINI LOUNGE

The council chose to follow the Planning Commission’s decision

denying a new restaurant and martini lounge proposed for Newport

Boulevard, despite a vigorous appeal from the restaurant’s would-be

proprietor.

Dennis D’Alessio, who hoped to open a 4,245-square-foot eatery on

Newport Boulevard, told the council it would be a high-end restaurant

and not a noisy nightclub, and he proposed all sorts of compromises

to address an existing shortage of business parking in the area. But

council members didn’t bite, and they finally voted unanimously to

uphold the commission’s denial of D’Alessio’s application.

WHAT IT MEANS

There won’t be another restaurant in the strip that includes the

Golden Truffle and the Bamboo Terrace, an area that already professes

parking shortages, unless D’Alessio comes up with another project for

the building he owns there.

WHAT THEY SAID

“Nothing offered tonight solves the parking problem,” Councilman

Gary Monahan said. “When I look at it, it just doesn’t work on the

parking.”

MEETING TIME, DATE AND AGENDA ORDER

From now on, the City Council will hold its meetings on the first

and third Tuesday of the month, rather than Mondays. Closed sessions

-- to discuss confidential issues such as property or employee

negotiations and potential or existing litigation -- will now be held

before meetings instead of at the end. Study sessions will still

begin at 5:30 p.m., an hour before the meeting, so closed sessions

will happen at 5 p.m. as needed.

WHAT IT MEANS

The new Tuesday meeting schedule begins with the next meeting, set

for March 1. Council members are hoping the changes will mean more

people can attend meetings -- and that they’ll have fewer late

nights. But that often depends on the amount of public comment, which

the council chose not to limit in the interest of encouraging

community input.

PAULARINO APARTMENT GARAGES

After lengthy discussions on parking problems near the Park Mesa

Village apartments and whether the developer should get an extension

on an application to shrink the amount of parking by building

garages, the council decided to continue the issue until next month.

The council in 2003 approved the request from Park Mesa owner

Cameo Homes to reduce parking by 10 spaces to add covered garages,

and that approval gave Cameo one year to build the garages. But the

project never got built because of increases in construction prices

and a mix-up over the procedure to request an extension on the

project.

The issue wasn’t clear-cut: On one hand, neighbors complained that

parking on adjacent Manistee Drive is already a problem because of

the apartments; on the other, the council had originally approved the

project.

WHAT IT MEANS

The council discuss the issue further March 15 and may consider

making entrances into the complex from Manistee Drive gates into

emergency-only entrances.

-- Alicia Robinson