A restaurant along Don Jose Avila Street in barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City was shut down yesterday for failing to comply with zoning and building requirements.
Camia Street Cafe and Resto, a two-story building owned by siblings Elaine and Adrian Lee, was closed by the Cebu City Hall’s Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (PROBE).
The closure came after the court denied the application by the owners to extend a 72-hour temporary restraining order for lack of merit. Cebu City Hall ordered the restaurant’s closure last June 30.
Revocation
The restaurant’s temporary business permit issued last January 23 expired last April 20 based on the records from the City Treasurer’s Office.
The owners then secured a TRO to prevent the closure.
Adrian Lee, one of the owners, said they filed charges against lawyer Jose Marie Poblete, chief of the Office of the Building Official, at the Ombudsman in relation to the closure.
Lee said no due process was followed in the revocation of their permits.
He said that the OBO should have been more careful in approving the permits. “I applied for a building permit,” he said.
Clearance
Poblete said he revoked Lee’s building permit based on the resolution of the Cebu City Zoning Board.
“One of the requirements of a building permit is a locational clearance from the City Zoning Board. There won’t be any building permit without the clearance,” Poblete said.
He said the City Legal Office acknowledged that the zoning board erred when it failed to realize that part of the area occupied by the building is for road-right-of-way.
“There were yard regulations that they didn’t comply with. The city government cleared the area for future road widening and to build a sidewalk.
But the owners built a permanent structure there,” Poblete said.