Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Planners say they're fed up with O'Shea's excuses

By Clarence Cromwell

After four years of warnings and threats from the town of Los Gatos, O'Shea's Bar and Grill, at 258 Union Ave., is still more a bar than a neighborhood restaurant.

Now the cozy neighborhood pub could be shut down by planners who say they're fed up with excuses.

Although stand-alone bars are allowed only downtown, O'Shea's owners have not taken significant steps toward converting the business back to a restaurant, commission members found, even four years after the town asked O'Shea's to stop operating as a bar.

O'Shea's went to court over the Planning Commission's October 1993 decision requiring a conditional-use permit--and lost.

After hearing from the pub's owners and neighbors last week, commissioners took preliminary steps in revoking the bar's use permit; the action they took determines that grounds exist to revoke the permit. The decision on whether to revoke must be made at a separate meeting, and that decision is set for July 23.

Some commissioners were obviously irritated with Ellen and Stan Schwartz, owners of the pub, who claimed that they have every intention of meeting their conditions of approval but that they misunderstood some of the town's requirements and simply haven't completed others.

"If they haven't been able to meet the conditions in three years, I don't think they ever will," Commissioner Wes Peyton said.

Stan Schwartz testified that O'Shea's hasn't heeded the 10 p.m. closing time imposed by the town because he thought the town attorney gave permission to stay open until 11 p.m. Planner Marcia Jensen explained that a Sept. 26, 1994, letter from then-Town Attorney Larry Anderson was to notify the Schwartzes they'd need permission if they planned to stay open later than 10 p.m.

"I don't think you have to be a lawyer to understand that the term 'initial application' means you have to apply for a use permit," Jensen said.

Although the establishment was to sell alcohol only with meals, a Planning Department staff report stated, town employees observed the bar on three occasions and watched patrons with mugs, glasses and no food.

Schwartz said he hasn't yet replaced the bar with a salad station and espresso machines because he never got town permission; no permits were needed for such minor work, however, according to Planning Director Lee Bowman.

If O'Shea's use permit is revoked later this month, the bar goes back to being an illegal use. Then, according to Town Attorney Orry Korb, he could seek a court order to close the bar down.

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