Whittier Council news

Tuesday night's Whittier City Council meeting only took about an hour, but a lot of news and action still happened in this short time frame.

Probably the biggest news wasn't even on the agenda. Two residents of Sunrise Drive complained about the paparazzi cluttering up their street and got a sympathetic reaction from council members. Staff writer Airan Scruby writes about this in more detail here: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_11783491.

The council also decided no to any kind of Independence Day celebration. See this story for more detail: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_11783483. Look for more detailed stories on both later this evening.

Councilman Owen Newcomer also decided to pull Seta Restaurant's request to remain open until 2 a.m. and ask for a public hearing on it. We'll have more on that issue this weekend.
The council decided to pay Buxton of Texas $70,000 to provide a market study for the city. The company will focus on four areas: Uptown, the auto deal areas and shopping center areas along Whittier Boulevard, and the Fred C. Nelles site.

As expected, it also agreed to set a public hearing for Steve's BBQ to ask to remain open until 2 a.m. It is expected to be held on March 10.

And a scheduled public hearing on the case of the 13- to 15-foot wall at the 14800 block of Mar Vista St., has again been put off. This time, it's until March 24. The City Council already has twice put off a public hearing scheduled on the request by owner Hugo Gutierrez for a variance. City officials say Gutierrez has made a new proposal, but refuse to give any details. Still, the council has discussed it during several times during closed session. It can do that under the exception for legal actions. The city has a code enforcement action pending against Gutierrez.