U.S. Water Polo Team Denies Pact With Inn Builder

Although city documents and a recent newspaper ad imply otherwise, the U.S. Olympic water polo team has no commitment to train at the proposed Inn at King Harbor hotel/sports complex and does not consider the facility its permanent home, team officials say.

Developer Les Guthrie, whose Marina Cove Ltd. plans to construct the controversial, eight-story complex, has made the water polo team’s residence a cornerstone of his efforts to win needed city approvals.

Indeed, a full-page ad placed in the Easy Reader weekly last Thursday by the marina’s SportCenter--and approved for publication by Guthrie--features a photo of the 1984 Olympic silver medal team. Next to it are the words: “Redondo Beach, this is your HOME TEAM, THE ONE PLACE we wish to train.”

Moreover, a specific development agreement that City Council will consider after the March 5 municipal election states that the inn--the council and the California Coastal Commission have already given general approvals to the $11 million, 156-room complex--would serve the public interest because it “will provide an Olympic-size swimming pool for a training facility for the United States National Water Polo Team.”

Not Accurate

Such statements are inaccurate, according to Dr. Ralph Hale, president of United States Water Polo Inc., the governing body for the national team.

Hale, contacted by telephone in Hawaii last week, said the Olympic team--coached by Bill Barnett of Laguna Beach--is currently committed to the Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach.

“They’ve been good to us,” he said. “We’re very happy to use them.”

Hale said that U.S. Water Polo--which had initially expected that the pool at the inn would be ready long before the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games--might still be interested in making use of the completed pool, particularly for its junior men’s team. But as for the complex providing a future permanent home for the senior national Olympic team, he said, “We have not made that commitment.”

Hale also expressed uneasiness at the national body being caught in the middle of a local political struggle.

The inn complex has long been a target of Mayor Barbara Doerr, Councilman Ray Amys and others who charge that the waterfront area is being overdeveloped. Doerr and Amys are seeking support for a voter initiative that would limit new construction at the harbor.

Using Olympic Team

Inn supporters, who say the initiative could help scuttle the project, have responded loudly--often invoking the name of the Olympic team to forward their arguments.

For example, in last week’s ad, Doerr, Amys, City Treasurer Alice De Long and City Clerk John Oliver are criticized for having “sponsored a petition which could prevent (the facility) from providing a permanent home for the U.S. National Water Polo Team.”

Said Hale in reaction: “We are taking no side whatsoever--and you may quote me on that.”

Guthrie said last week that his repeated publicity about the Olympic team has been based on letters of support from water polo team officials and official statements made before the City Council.

However, he said, “I don’t have a commitment (from the team)--I don’t have a final commitment for financing the project.”

Most of the comments supporting the complex, he acknowledged, were made well in advance of last summer’s Olympics.

For example, Barbara Kalbus, former president of U.S. Water Polo Inc., wrote Guthrie in 1981 and again in 1983 expressing support for the pool. In the 1983 letter she stated, “On behalf of . . . the national governing body for water polo in this country, I support your efforts to have a 30-meter, all-deep pool and other facilities built in the South Bay area at King Harbor.

Would Fulfill Need

“The United States National Water Polo Team has long needed a home pool,” she continued. “This pool would fulfill that need for our team.”

Kalbus said last week that such statements were predicated in part on predictions that the team could make use of completed facilities before the Los Angeles Summer Games.

“It’s four years later, we have a completely different coaching staff, and the coach lives in Laguna Beach,” Kalbus said. She added that she had been careful never to have legally committed the team to make the inn its home.

According to Kalbus, who remains active in the Olympic program, “We’re still very much in favor of the pool, but I’m not in favor of saying in an ad . . . that this is our home.”

“We’d like to (occasionally) train there, yes; we’d like to have competition there, yes; and certainly we’d like to use it for regular training for the junior team. But for our senior team (the Olympic silver medal team), during the week it wouldn’t be a conducive spot to go to . . . so I wouldn’t want to say it’s our home.”

Official Opposition

During the last four years, the inn project has suffered repeated delays, partly because of opposition from officials, including Doerr, who vetoed the council’s decision to grant a conditional-use permit in late 1983. In November, 1983, the council voted 4 to 1 to overturn Doerr’s action. This week, Doerr vetoed a one-year extension of the permit, but was again overruled by a 4-1 council vote.

A conditional-use permit is needed because the project far exceeds the 35-foot height limit for the harbor area--a limit Guthrie successfully argued was silly because his structure would lie directly across the street from a massive Southern California Edison power plant.

After the inn won state Coastal Commission approval last September, Doerr announced plans for the initiative, which would prohibit the use of conditional-use permits to allow new buildings at King Harbor of more than two stories or 38 feet in height. The initiative also calls for building setbacks of at least 15 feet from public streets or quay walls and adequate on-site commercial parking.

Playing Politics

Supporters of the inn have seen the initiative as a veiled attempt to block their project, although Doerr has denied that. Last November, Guthrie mailed post cards to area residents depicting Doerr and Amys pushing a blindfolded and bound Olympic eagle off a diving board, with the words, “Stop Amys and Doerr from killing our Olympic dream!”

Initiative supporters have collected 2,000 signatures so far and have until April 5 to bring the total to 5,400 valid signatures--15% of the city’s approximately 36,000 registered voters--in order to have a special election called. So far they have collected 2,000 signatures have been collected so far

The council’s pending vote on a development agreement, however, could make the initiative moot, at least as far as this project is concerned, by protecting the project from any zoning changes for three years.

“At this point, with the initiative and the whole political rhetoric that goes on, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Guthrie. “It’s an almost impossible environment to do any business in.”

Guthrie conceded that the situation with the Olympic team is also iffy.

Need of a Contract

“There is no question there is no contract because there is no pool. You’ve got to have a pool to have a contract,” he said.

“Frankly, I didn’t even know Barbara Kalbus was no longer the president (of U.S. Water Polo),” he added.

Kalbus, who turned over the reins of U.S. Water Polo to Hale last fall, believes that the “pool shouldn’t hinge on whether we are using it.”

Hale is of mixed emotions.

“We don’t want to squelch the developer because if everything comes out well, we might be interested in using the pool,” he said. “But on the other hand, we’re not going to make any decisions before we see what’s happening.”