Sheffield: Santa Monica becoming a ‘chain’ city
The Boathouse restaurant’s voyage to extinction has been extended two weeks.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Diana Wheatley Friday gave owner Naia Sheffield until April 15 to move her family’s longtime business off the Santa Monica Pier.
The ruling extended an earlier Sunday deadline the judge set more than a week ago. Wheatley has ruled that the restaurant’s lease with the city is over.
But Sheffield and her attorney, Kelly Bixby, have called for rescue efforts, and will attempt to keep the Boathouse afloat.
The city is kicking out the Boathouse to make way for the chain-owned Bubba Gump restaurant.
The controversial move includes behind-the-scenes politics, some claim. The group that technically signs leases, the Pier Restoration Corporation, has members whose terms have shown some notorious irregularities. Several members have overstayed their terms, but the city council had left the composition alone while Bubba Gump negotiated its lease.
Some say the future of Santa Monica hangs in the balance.
Difficult to believe over a controversy about a mere bar, they say Santa Monica is slipping down the road of anonymous suburbia, losing the identity that once made it famous in its own rite.
The Boathouse slid from a long-term to a month-to-month lease with the PRC, which legally made it vulnerable to sudden eviction.
But Sheffield refused to move, arguing that the PRC reneged on its long-term lease offer to the Boathouse more than three years ago. Sheffield has said the PRC pulled the rug out from under her, offering Bubba Gump a lease instead. When the city went with Bubba Gump, it told Sheffield she had until last July to move out.
It is Sheffield’s legal fighting which has kept her hanging on.
The city filed a lawsuit against the Boathouse to have it evicted so Bubba Gump could renovate the building and be ready to open this summer.
But if Sheffield doesn’t win her long-standing fight against the city in the next 16 days, it appears the building will remain empty for an entire year before Bubba Gump actually moves in.
Sheffield sued the city in U.S. District Court claiming breach of contract, violation of her right to due process, and unlawful takings. She also claims that the PRC violated the state’s open meeting law and that the city intentionally misrepresented the lease agreement.
A federal judge dismissed the suit ear-lier this month.
However, Bixby plans to appeal the court’s decision in the next two weeks.
He hopes the court will act quickly because of the pending eviction.
Deputy City Attorney Tony Serritella doesn’t anticipate that Sheffield will win.
“I think the court’s granting for a short and final stay was designed to accommodate the Boathouse so it can get its affairs in order,” he said. “It’s an assistance to pack up and leave.”
In addition to granting the eviction, Wheatley ruled on March 20 that the Boathouse must pay $25,000 in rent the city earlier refused to accept because it feared recognizing a lease which wasn’t there, Serritella said.
The city’s claims that it was losing money by failing to allow Bubba Gump to proceed is awkward, because it’s leaving a notable Pier restaurant empty over the most popular months of summer, Bixby said.
“We’ve shown that the city would be irreparably damaged, as well as (Bubba Gump), because we were supposed to turn that property over six months ago,” Serritella argued.
Bixby argued that the Boathouse has tried to pay its rent —about $180 a day. He also argued that Bubba Gump’s lease allows the city to extend its contract without collecting rent until Bubba Gump gets the proper building permits.
“Bubba Gump already knew that there was going to be a problem,” Bixby said, adding the chain restaurant anticipated the delays.
Sheffield’s family has more than 40 years of history on the pier. The Boathouse employs about 30 people, Bixby said.
“We don’t even have adequate time to let the employees know,” he claimed.
Wheatley said she was prepared to grant the delay before Friday morning’s court hearing but wanted to hear arguments anyway.
“I wouldn’t be considering this if they haven’t been there for more than 40 years,” Wheatley said. “Two weeks is reasonable to make arrangements.”
Sheffield, who attended Friday’s hearing, said it’s a challenge to save her business in the legal system because judges don’t recognize the emotional aspect of the Boathouse’s place in Santa Monica’s history.
“People think I’m crazy for fighting this hard,” she said. “I don’t want to fight any-more … it’s becoming a chain town and not the quaint city along the sea anymore.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 30, 2002. Read the original PDF.