Owners of Alex Bar-B-Q in Shell Beach sue construction company over demolition debacle
The owners of the once-historic Alex Bar-B-Q restaurant in Pismo Beach filed a lawsuit in court Friday against the construction company that illegally demolished the building in 2018.
Playa Dulce, LLC, the company that owns the property at 853 Shell Beach Road, filed a complaint in San Luis Obispo Superior Court against Kain Building and Design Group, LLC, a San Luis Obispo-based contractor, for alleged negligence and breach of contract.
The Alex Bar-B-Q building, which stood on Shell Beach Road for more than 80 years, was entirely demolished as part of a renovation project to turn the structure into a new restaurant by Compass Health, Pismo Beach city officials said at the time.
Though the project’s contractors had permits to remove the tower from the building, the entire building was torn down in error instead.
The sudden demolition drew outrage from residents countywide.
According to the complaint, the historic 3,500-square-foot building was erected in the 1940s. The building had been originally approved for a remodel to construct an additional area for outdoor dining and to upgrade the existing building.
Playa Dulce had obtained a coastal development permit to tear down a few hundred square feet of the restaurant’s front wall on June 12, 2018. But at some point after the demolition work for the remodel commenced, Kain Building requested an emergency permit from the City of Pismo Beach on the basis that the tower that held the business’ iconic sign was structurally unsafe, the complaint reads.
Even though the city only approved the removal of the tower, on September 18, 2018, the contractors demolished the entirety of the main building.
Citing the illegal demolition, the city pulled the coastal development permit for the remodel and has since determined that the remodel is no longer possible due to the demolition of the entire existing structure.
Playa Dulce claims that an entirely new restaurant of similar size at that site is also not possible, as the City of Pismo Beach would apply the current municipal code parking requirements, which requires more parking than available on the property.
“(Contractors) were fully aware that Playa Dulce purchased the subject property site for the specific purpose of maintaining the existing restaurant and bar in its legal nonconforming use, and adding this location to Playa Dulce’s collection of food and beverage venues,” the lawsuit reads. “This is no longer an economically feasible option for Playa Dulce as the legal nonconforming use advantage has been forever lost.”
The company is seeking an unspecified amount of general damages to be proven at trial.
Neither Roy Ogden, attorney for Playa Dulce, nor representatives from Kain Building and Design Group could immediately be reached for comment late Friday.
A case management conference for the civil case is scheduled for December.