Petition for Del Mar Hotel Ballot Off to a Slow Start

Del Mar residents evidently frowned on millionaire James Smith’s offer of half-price drinks, food and rooms at his proposed hillside hotel. Only 88 of 3,700-plus voters have signed the petitions Smith mailed to every household in the small seaside city.

Opponents of his hotel proposal labeled as “bribery” Smith’s offer of “membership entitlement for the use of all public areas and a 50% discount on room, food and beverage service” to all registered Del Mar voters if the hotel became reality.

Smith himself admitted Tuesday that “once again, I’m marching out of step with the rest of the town.”

He sent out petitions last week and expected to receive back enough signatures to force the Del Mar City Council to call a special election on whether he could build a 500-room “world-class, 5-star” hostelry on his 20-acre property. He even enclosed postage-paid return envelopes.

By Tuesday’s mail, he had received only 88 signatures, far short of the 550 to 600 he needs to get the proposal on the ballot.

Smith was deflated by the resounding lack of response, but he is not defeated. He now plans to take his fight to the streets, to ring doorbells and make pitches to the populace. He also has extended his campaign deadline until Oct. 19, a more realistic six-month time period than his initial six-day effort, which he admitted was “a flop.”

If he turns in his goal of 800 signatures in October, the City Council would be able to place the issue on the April, 1986, ballot and avoid the cost of a special election.

“I’m really shocked at the lack of response right here in Del Mar. I thought this was the activist capital of the world,” Smith said. “I know it wasn’t the issue that did it. All we are asking for is to put the issue before the people.”

A well-organized neighborhood group near Smith’s property--known as the Snake Wall because of a sinuous concrete wall that encircles the acreage--distributed leaflets urging residents not to sign the petitions.

Neighbors pointed out the high density of the proposed hotel development and pleaded: “We would never support an initiative to put a hotel in your neighborhood, please don’t do it to ours.”

Smith said that the hotel would not disturb his neighbors or bring additional traffic into Del Mar because it would use roads serving the Del Mar Fairgrounds. He also estimated that the hotel would bring in an additional $750,000 a year to the city from sales and occupancy taxes.

Another hotel proposal--a 243-room facility near the Interstate 5-Via de la Valle interchange--won 11-1 approval Tuesday from the state Coastal Commission, meeting in Los Angeles.