(April 12, 2014) -- As flashed on LBREPORT.com's front page minutes after it occurred on Friday (April 11), the CA Coastal Commission -- including LB Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, backed by a letter on City Council letterhead by Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal -- has voted to deny approval for a boutique hotel at 2010 E. Ocean Blvd. that the Council less than a year earlier (on motion by Lowenthal) voted to approve.
The Commission vote to deny the project followed defeat of a motion that would have granted a 60 day continuance to allow the applicant/property owner to try and resolve objections to the proposed project. The 60 day continuance motion failed on a 4-8 vote -- with Garcia voting "no" (against the continuance) -- after the Unite Here hotel workers union (which opposed the boutique hotel) urged a vote against the continuance. The boutique hotel was a requested amendment to a less ambitious project that received land use approvals/entitlements in 2007 (under a prior landowner.) In July 2013, the City Council voted 8-0 (DeLong absent) to approve the boutique hotel amendment to the entitled project with 2nd dist. Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal explicitly supporting the boutique hotel over the objections of a number of her constituents and grassroots groups. (LBREPORT.com provides Amnesia File audio coverage of the July, 2013 Council proceedings below.) The boutique hotel proposal would have replaced the Beach Plaza Motel (built between 1947-55) with a four story structure with 33 conds and 72 hotel rooms, plus a swimming pool. The 2007 already-entitled project (approved under a prior owner) allows a 40 room hotel and 56 condos...which the new property owner will now pursue. What changed between July 2013 and April 2014? The proposed boutique hotel became a political hot potato after Unite Here, a politically active union, appealed City Council approval to the CA Coastal Commission. The Coastal Commission appeal escalated Councilmembers' political downside of approving the boutique hotel from angering neighborhood residents to angering a politically active union. After the Council voted to approve the hotel, Vice Mayor Robert Garcia and Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal both announced they were seeking higher office. They both initially announced they were running for Mayor; Lowenthal then dropped out of the Mayor's race, endorsed Garcia, and is now seeking the Assembly seat being vacated by her former mother-in-law Bonnie Lowenthal. On March 28, 2014, Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal submitted a letter, written on City of Long Beach City Council letterhead (without voted Council discussion or approval), urging the Coastal Commission not to approve the project that she and the Council had previously voted to approve. Her letter surfaced in the Coastal Commission staff report accompanying the project. It can be viewed here; Lowenthal's letter is on pdf page 12.)
Coastal Commission staff recommended Commission approval of the boutique hotel if accompanied by conditions including payment of "in-lieu" fees agreed to by the property owner which could be used to help fund future projects addressing affordability access issues under the coastal act. Project opponents said the current level of in-lieu fees is insufficient to replace lost affordable motel rooms along the coast. Ex parte lobbying/advocacy contacts [publicly announced at Coastal Commission meetings] indicated that prior to the meeting, UniteHere! representative Melanie Luthern (opposing the project) and Long Beach based private advocate/lobbyist Mike Murchison (supporting the project) had spoken with a number of Coastal Commission members, including Commission member Garcia. In testimony at the April 11 Coastal Commission meeting in Santa Barbara, Unite Here as an appellant, and the Long Beach Group of the Sierra Club (Gabrielle Weeks submitted written statement), the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust (Exec. Dir. Elizabeth Lambe) in public testimony, urged the Commission to deny approval of the project. Among their stated grounds was the City of Long Beach adopted Local Coastal Program, which specifies the need to maintain motels (affordable coastal area accommodations as opposed to a hotel (generally with pricier rooms plus bars, restaurants and neighborhood impacts including parking.) Several opponents said Commission approval of the boutique hotel would be a bad outcome, despite developer payment of "in lieu" fees, arguing it would undercut the Long Beach Local Coastal Program and invite the loss of other affordable accommodations elsewhere along the coast. Some said the in-lieu fees were insufficient to ensure future motel or affordable rate accommodations along the coast. During the Coastal Commission proceedings, Garcia said nothing about his prior vote approving the project. Some Commissioners noted that Councilwoman Lowenthal had submitted a letter opposing the project, but Garcia didn't mention that her letter takes a position contrary to her voted Council action and contrary to the voted policy position of the City of Long Beach as expressed through the City Council's voted action (in which he too had joined.) In Coastal Commission discussion, Garcia said Studio 111 had proposed a beautiful building and said the firm does great work in Long Beach, but said he was concerned about points made by opponents in their Commission testimony, including coastal access/affordability issues and points made by neighborhood groups. Garcia made no motions on the issue but voted on two motions made by others.
On July 9, 2013, the proposed boutique hotel came to the City Council on an appeal by neighborhood residents after City Hall's non-elected Planning Commission approved the project. The project was supported by city staff. During a lengthy hearing, three neighborhood appellants were joined by a number of residents, representatives of the Alamitos Beach Neighborhood Ass'n and the grassroots LB Coalition for Good Jobs and a Healthy Economy in urging the Council not to approve the project. In response to the residents' testimony, Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal stated that she supported the project and asked city staff to respond to (i.e. effectively rebut) points made by the neighborhood residents...and didn't give the appellants an additional chance to respond...and Council voted 8-0 (DeLong absent) to overrule the residents' appeal. Council approval of the proposal begat the Unite Here appeal, and the Commission's denial of approval for the hotel now leaves the property owner with its 2007 entitlements for a more modest project. blog comments powered by Disqus
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