Los Angeles Daily News
25 Oct. 2004

Preventing banquet brawls

City considering ways to increase security

By Naush Boghossian
Staff Writer

GLENDALE — The City Council on Tuesday is expected to considerways to
regulate local banquet halls in an effort to stem an increasing number
of violent incidents that drain police resources, officials said.
City officials plan on creating new guidelines for the facilities —
that could include beefed-up security and better communication with
police — to reduce the number of complaints about security and noise,
especially since most of the halls are located near residential
neighborhoods.

The concern is that the combination of hundreds of people at the same
place and alcohol can become a formula for mayhem.

“I want to hear how city staff and banquet hall operators want to
resolve some of the issues we have to grapple with, and I am hoping
to come up with some new solutions to some of the recent events,”
said Mayor Bob Yousefian.

Representatives of 10 Glendale banquet halls met with city and police
officials Wednesday to discuss their concerns and ways to address
the problems.

Since July, police have responded to more than 11 brawls in which
unruly crowds of 150 to 500 people had to be brought under control. The
incidents have required more than 50 man-hours, more than 100 officers
and have resulted in more than a dozen arrests for disorderly conduct,
disturbing the peace, assault and assault on police officers.

Ideas tossed around at the meeting included training security guards
more thoroughly, having adequate security and establishing better
means of communication between hall operators and the Glendale Police
Department, said Jeff Lambert, a consultant hired by the city to help
address the issue of banquet halls.

The question was also raised about whether there are ways to recover
the costs of city resources expended for calls to banquet halls.

“We’re not going to solve the problem Tuesday, but we want to define
it and get direction from the council on where we want to go,”
Lambert said.

One problem that has caused confusion for hall owners and has made
it difficult to regulate banquet halls is the lack of rules designed
specifically for the facilities, officials said.

Under current city codes, banquet halls are generally treated
like restaurants, and city officials are hoping to create distinct
requirements for each.

“For us, it’s important to identify the distinctions between
restaurants and banquet halls,” said Hassan Haghani, assistant director
of planning. “We want to see if there are different impacts and if
there should be a different set of regulations from a restaurant. Now
they’re operating as the same, and the distinctions are blurry in
the code.”

The city scrambled to create some guidelines to prevent people from
opening restaurants with the intent of ultimately changing them into
banquet halls, but those have essentially failed, Yousefian said.

For example, banquet halls cannot be located within 200 feet of a
residence and restaurants may only use 30 percent of their space as
banquet halls.

“I think those zoning laws are definitely not working, they
are very difficult to enforce, and they sit on the edge of being
unconstitutional,” he said. “And the 200-feet rule is not realistic.
Let’s deal with the real issues — noise and traffic.”

Currently, there are 17 banquet halls in Glendale that accommodate
large gatherings, including wedding receptions and parties, generally
thrown by its Armenian, Latino and Asian communities.

Some of the problems could be caused by organizations with large
facilities but no expertise in managing the gatherings that have
been trying to capitalize on the high demand by renting out to large
parties.

Vrej Sarkissian, chief executive officer of the two Anoush Banquet
Hall facilities in Glendale, said the key is having experienced hall
operators who take their business seriously.

Operating since 1990, Anoush is one of the city’s busiest and most
successful facilities, hosting at least three events per week, but
calls to police have been rare.

They employ armed security guards, have closed-circuit televisions
and screen those to whom they rent the hall to ensure the safety of
customers and neighbors.

“Our place and other reputable facilities have a tight rein on
their operations, but when you have banquet halls where the owner
and managers are not there during the events, it’s places like that
that give everybody a bad name,” said the 30-year-old graduate of
the University of Southern California and Loyola Law School.

“Anytime you have liquor involved, there’s bound to be issues, but
there are ways to mitigate those situations and the more successful
banquet halls have found ways to do that. The key is not to close
banquet halls down, but to have a system in place to minimize those
responses.”

Naush Boghossian, (818) 546-3306 naush.boghossian@dailynews.comIF
YOU GO

The joint study session of the Glendale City Council, the Planning
Commission and the Board of Zoning Adjustments will take place 10
a.m. Tuesday in Room 105 of the Municipal Services Building, 633
E. Broadway.