The Regent Theatre is awaiting a hearing for alcohol permit approval

A theater on Broxton Avenue may offer beer and wine when it reopens in November if its permit application is approved by the city.

The North Westwood Neighborhood Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the beer and wine permit application for Landmark’s Regent Theatre, which has been closed since June 14, on Wednesday.

The resolution also allowed councilmembers to express opposition to any appeals this application may face. Appeals are requests to change project proposals that have been approved by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. Appeals to liquor licenses have been a common issue in the Village, with some stakeholders blaming abuse of the appeals process for the Village’s high vacancy rates.

Margaret Taylor, CEO and senior building and land use consultant of Apex LA, presented the proposal to the council at the meeting on behalf of Landmark Theatres. The theater is currently undergoing renovations but will reopen in November with a new lobby and larger auditorium seating, Taylor said.

Regent Theatre applied for a beer and wine conditional use permit with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning on Sept. 13. The application is currently under review and awaiting a hearing Dec. 9, according to the case file.

Taylor said the theater will not have a bar or seating in the lobby as initially intended because the Westwood Village Specific Plan – a master planning document for Westwood zoning regulations – prohibited those in a theater setting.

“It was originally planned to have some lobby seating for people to relax while they’re waiting for the movie start,” Taylor said. “The problem is the Specific Plan has very specific definitions of ‘restaurant,’ and that would have considered us a restaurant versus a theater, so we took them out.”

Councilmember Mara Braciszewski said she would support more seating in the lobby area because she wants to see more spaces for people to congregate from diverse backgrounds. Michael Skiles, president of the NWWNC, agreed with Braciszewski and said that once the Specific Plan is revised, the council would support this improvement.

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Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council, said the council should be cautious to support the permit application because he thought alcoholic beverages could easily be shared with underaged patrons in a dark theater. He added this potential problem could be more pronounced in a college town.

“What prevents me from buying two drinks and handing it to somebody right next to me or someone that I come to the theater with?” Sann said. “Those logistics problems are made more challenging in a darkened theater environment, where you don’t have servers and bartenders that can observe how the alcohol is being consumed.”

NWWNC Councilmember Amir Tarighat said he was concerned this application may face appeals that obstruct its ability to be approved in a timely manner.

Such appeals have been used repeatedly by individuals such as Sann to oppose and delay liquor licenses before.

Concerns over potential appeals led Skiles to motion for the council to support the application and allow any board member to submit letters of support to any relevant governing bodies in opposition to any related appeals.

Some stakeholders who attended the council meeting Wednesday voiced support for the Regent Theatre’s permit application.

Peter Clinco, Skylight Gardens owner and Westwood Village Improvement Association board member, said he enthusiastically supported allowing alcoholic beverages at the theater.

He added that since iPic Theaters, which has a location on Wilshire Boulevard, has filed for bankruptcy, the Regent Theatre may turn out to be the only dine-in theater option in Westwood.

“You want to make Westwood a great place to visit?” Clinco said. “Give them a chance to show fine movies with alcoholic beverages. I have been open for nine years, (I have) not (had) one complaint about the alcohol (or) about underaged drinking.”

Benjamin Mitchell, president of the chamber orchestra Kaleidoscope, said he recommended the council support the permit application because he has seen theaters across the world sell alcohol responsibly. He added he did not think Sann’s concerns were warranted.

“The concern of someone buying a beverage and giving it to someone who’s under 21, to me that argument isn’t convincing, because that could happen anywhere,” Mitchell said. “So to limit it in an area which is contained and people have the option of breaking a rule or not like they do anywhere else doesn’t make sense to me.”