Changes at restaurant

Mozambique is ordered to remove extra seats, provide on-site employee parking in keeping with its conditional use permit from city.After listening to a litany of complaints by neighbors of Mozambique restaurant on Oct. 26, the planning commission acted on two documented violations of the restaurant’s conditional-use permit.

Restaurant owners were ordered to have only the number of seats in the exact location approved in the permit and to provide on-site parking for 10 employees, in keeping with the conditional-use permit.

The restaurant’s request to amend the permit to expand hours of operation, to increase seating and to expand valet parking service was continued until December.

“We are looking forward to getting the problems solved. We want to be local supporters, and we want local support,” said Mozambique spokesman Bill Brooks, a long-time Laguna Beach resident.

“We are all about taking the high road no matter how contentious the neighbors get.”

Brooks said problems would be more easily solved if the neighbors brought their complaints to the restaurant rather than to the city.

“The commission’s problems were not related to complaints by neighbors except for not parking employees on the site,” Commissioner Norm Grossman said.

“The main [neighbor] complaints had not been documented with the city.”

However, seating in excess of the number approved in the conditional-use permit was documented.

City Planner Jenifer Murillo counted a total of 150 seats in the restaurant, 10 more than approved.

“More to the point, she counted about 45 seats in the bar, some of which had been moved in due to inclement weather. But at least 40 of them were inside seating and only 24 were permitted,” Grossman said.

Neighbors’ complaints included employee parking in the neighborhood and littering.

The commission asked staff to send copies of all filed complaints to Mozambique owners and asked the owners to hold weekly meetings with neighbors to discuss the complaints.

The commission also asked the restaurant owners for a plan to clean up litter -- although it might be difficult to pinpoint the litterers -- and warned them to expect random inspections of the employee parking.

A mandatory six-month review of the conditional-use permit will be held in January.