Council approves controversial lounge
City leaders reconsider plan after being denied three times over 2 years
Note: Due to a production error, an incorrect version of this story ran in Thursday’s Local section.
SAN JOSE — A controversial project that was denied three times and stalled for nearly two years will finally become reality for a neglected building in downtown San Jose.
After an emotional hearing Tuesday, the San Jose City Council voted 7-4 to uphold the approval of FUZ Bar and Grill, an “ultralounge” proposed for the vacant Bella Mia Restaurant. Mayor Sam Liccardo, Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco, council members Sylvia Arenas and Raul Peralez — the downtown councilman representing the district — were opposed.
It was a council meeting filled with emotion and a movie clip from Rocky Balboa — but it ultimately ended with success for downtown business owner Jenny Wolfes. Councilman Lan Diep, who voted for the project, played a twominute clip to illustrate the difficulties Wolfes has gone through.
“She’d done everything the city asked, and they kept on asking for more,” Diep said. “Rocky’s situation in the film seemed to parallel Jenny’s.”
Wolfes in March 2015 applied for a permit to serve alcohol and play music until 2 a.m. inside the historic building at 58 South 1st Street, which sat empty since 2014 and was plagued by vandalism, graffiti and blight.
Wolfes’ project initially got approvals from city planners and the San Jose Planning Commission. But the project’s next-door neighbors, prominent law firm Hopkins & Carley, opposed the plan and appealed multiple times, complaining about noise, odor and traffic concerns.
Over the next two years, the city Planning Commission reversed its decision twice and Planning Director Harry Freitas withdrew his support. Liccardo and Peralez led the opposition, saying the project would turn into a “mega-club” and over saturate a street already occupied by several other bars and lounges.
But after being accused of violating open meeting law by privately lining up votes to deny the proposal last year, the City Council reconsidered the issue Tuesday — and it won approval with four new coun- cil members.
Peralez, who apologized to Wolfes after the meeting for upsetting her, said he’s disappointed by the outcome.
“At the end of the day, we’re a council of 11 people and a majority saw it differently,” Peralez said following the meeting. “I went to Jenny afterwards and congratulated her and expressed my interest in wanting to support her as a business.”
To address concerns from project critics, Wolfes added a daytime use — a Japanese fusion restaurant — to ensure the site wouldn’t be dark during the day and reduced its occupancy from 669 people to 500 people — 250 on each floor. Wolfes will use the top floor of the 8,642-squarefoot building for a private banquet hall.
“I’m so happy for the city that we now have a council that cares about business and is looking past the politics,” Wolfes said late Tuesday.
Though Wolfes’ project was denied three separate times by the City Council, she secured more support with each hearing — going from a 9-2 vote to reject her project in August 2015 to a split 6-5 vote last November.
But two weeks after that last vote to deny the project, allegations surfaced that City Council members violated the Ralph M. Brown Act — which prohibits public officials from privately lining up votes. The potential violation occurred when it appeared a total of six council members — a majority of the 11-member City Council — may have privately discussed opposing the plan.
Councilman Johnny Khamis — who supported the plan from its start — said it’s become one the “most overly politicized” projects he’s ever seen. The city has approved 54 other similar late-night use permits, records show, including ones at neighboring businesses such as M Asian Fusion.
“We just had a women’s march,” Khamis said. “Does (Wolfes) need her own march? I’ve been here four years — never have I seen anyone treated like this.”
Liccardo, who represented the downtown district before being elected mayor, said it’s a common “phenomenon” that applicants ask to open a restaurant before morphing into a nightclub. San Jose, the mayor argued, doesn’t have enough police officers to oversee another club.
But Wolfes said she won’t disappoint the elected leaders who backed her plan. “I really appreciate the old council members that supported me and the new ones,” she said.