JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT?-Homes are just yards away from P6, a Westlake Village restaurant on Agoura Road. Residents complain about noise and rowdiness. The city of Thousand Oaks is looking into it. Complaints about bars and restaurants are quite common, according to a city official.

In response to residents’ complaints, the city of Thousand Oaks has opened an investigation into whether or not the P6 restaurant and lounge at 2809 Agoura Road in Westlake Village is complying with requirements.

The city’s code compliance department is looking into the matter in conjunction with local police.

Both sides—residents who live in the Stoneybrook development adjacent to the restaurant, as well as the restaurant’s owners—are frustrated.

Shortly after P6 opened last June, residents began complaining about late night noise behind the restaurant, calling police numerous times.

"They come out of the place, have had too much to drink, linger in the parking lot yelling to each other, laughing, honking horns, setting off car alarms, and there is no one from the restaurant anywhere to be found," nearby resident Barbara Kerns wrote last week in a letter of complaint to Thousand Oaks Mayor Claudia Bill-de la Peña.

Jerry Rubacky, P6 co-owner with Brad Finefrock, said they have responded to residents’ concerns. Signs were placed in the parking lot asking customers to respect neighbors, and a chain was hung across a portion of the back entrance of the restaurant to discourage customers from using the alleyway that runs behind homes. Rubacky says the entire entrance cannot be chained off because employees of other businesses in the retail center, like Domino’s pizza deliverers, need access to the driveway. Security guards were hired to patrol the parking lot every 30 minutes to encourage customers not to linger. Employees were warned not to use the alleyway.

In addition, tempered glass walls were added to the restaurant’s outdoor patio and landscaping planted at the back to minimize noise.

"We’ve put a significant amount of money here and have a lot at stake. Our only intent is to have a first-rate, fine dining restaurant and lounge, something this area desperately needs," said Rubacky, adding that P6 serves 2,500 meals a week to an upscale crowd between the ages of 25 and 60.

Kerns, who lives directly behind P6, acknowledges that the restaurant owners have tried to respond to her concerns.

"They take care of any immediate complaint, but nothing changes for the long-term," Kerns wrote in her letter to the mayor. "This is not a fine dining restaurant. They should never have allowed a bar/nightclub to be opened in such close proximity to homes."

The city’s planning commission originally denied the restaurant’s application, but the city council overruled the commission’s decision and approved the application. Stoneybrook residents collected 80 signatures on a petition sent to the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) urging them not to grant a hard liquor license to the restaurant but to no avail.

"Myself and the 80 people that signed the petition opposing the issuance of the hard liquor license were not given any explanation or justification for granting the license approval by the ABC or allowing the late-night operating hours so close to residential homes," wrote David Berger in a letter to the ABC dated last March 23. Berger lives 235 feet from the rear wall of the restaurant.

Geoffrey Ware, the city’s code compliance manager, said that as long as P6 is not exclusively a bar but is conducting its bar in conjunction with a restaurant, it is in compliance. He added that the city regularly gets complaints like this and that some have merit and others that do not.

"Every commercial business in the city has a long list of entitlements it must comply with, so we are continuously investigating restaurants and shopping centers," Ware said.