Mayor Vetoes Bid for Hilton Hotel at Warner Center

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley on Monday vetoed the City Council’s approval of a permit for construction of a 14-story, 340-room Hilton Hotel in Warner Center.

The veto prompted allegations from the hotel’s developer and Councilwoman Joy Picus, in whose West San Fernando Valley district the hotel would be built, that Bradley was trying to kill the project because one of his major campaign contributors led the opposition to it.

“I’m angry,” said Picus, who vowed to lobby her colleagues to override the mayor.

The veto sends the matter back to the council, where the project was approved Friday by a 12-1 vote. Twelve votes on the 14-member council would be required to override the veto, but Bradley has a number of close allies on the council who in the past have changed their positions on issues to conform with the mayor’s.

Pressure Cited

Picus and the hotel’s developer, Norman Kravetz, quickly attributed Bradley’s action to pressure from rival developer Robert Voit, who has spearheaded a fierce lobbying campaign against the new hotel for Warner Center, a 1,100-acre office-residential center in Woodland Hills.

Warner Center Properties, of which Voit is managing partner, was Bradley’s biggest campaign contributor from the Valley in 1983 and 1984, with $12,100 in donations, according to a Times analysis of contributions conducted last May.

Marriott Corp. is building a 17-story, 470-room hotel on Warner Center property owned by Voit less than a mile from the proposed site of the Hilton Hotel.

“I don’t know of any reason that anyone would veto a project of this quality other than personal relationships to opponents of our project,” Kravetz said.

“I think Norm Emerson wrote the veto message,” Picus said, referring to a former aide to Bradley who now works for Voit. Emerson testified at several city hearings, opposing the Hilton project on behalf of Voit.

Denies Contacting Mayor

After the council approved a conditional use permit for the hotel Friday, Emerson said he planned to call Bradley and urge him to veto the permit. But Emerson said Monday that neither he nor Voit had spoken to the mayor since the vote. Emerson declined to comment on the allegations of Picus and Kravetz.

Bradley’s office also declined to respond to the allegations. “The veto message speaks for itself,” said Victoria Pipkin, an aide to the mayor.

In his veto message to the council, Bradley cited concerns about traffic congestion around the fast-growing Warner Center and the loss of industrial land.

“The environmental impact report for this project states that the traffic generated by the proposed hotel will have a cumulative adverse impact on the area,” Bradley said.

Traffic Measures ‘Not Adequate’

“Actions taken by the council to mitigate this problem are not adequate,” he added, referring to a requirement that the hotel’s developer implement such traffic-easing measures as hiring a “ride-sharing coordinator” for employees, offering shuttle buses to airports and other locations and paying for transportation improvements such as street widening. Bradley did not say how these measures were inadequate.

Bradley also said the hotel conflicts with the land-use plan prepared for Warner Center, which calls for concentrating the area’s commercial core west of Canoga Avenue. The site of the proposed hotel is on the east side of Canoga just south of Victory Boulevard.

Pointing out that the area east of Canoga is in an industrial zone, Bradley said: “It is essential that the city preserve designated industrial lands for industrial uses to protect the city’s economic base and employment opportunities.”

Picus contended that the mayor’s veto message “doesn’t make any sense.

“What we can get there is infinitely worse than a class hotel,” she said, pointing out that the existing zoning allows the property owner to build a six-story office building without taking any measures to reduce traffic.

Picus had argued that a hotel would generate less traffic during rush hours than a high-rise office building, which she said would probably be filled with workers commuting during peak traffic times. Kravetz has proposed his hotel as part of his “Trillium” project, which will include two already-approved 17-story office buildings on eight acres.

From the start, the hotel issue prompted more than the usual lobbying. Among those hired to lobby for approval of the project were Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a former congresswoman and Los Angeles County supervisor, and former Councilman Robert M. Wilkinson.

Opposing the project, besides Emerson, were prominent City Hall lobbyists H. Randall Stoke and George Mihlsten, political consultants Rick Taylor and Lesley Winner, and Curtis Rossiter, former chief deputy to council President Pat Russell. Russell cast the one vote against the hotel permit.

Although criticizing the mayor’s veto, Picus said she is optimistic that she will be able to hold onto her margin on the council to override Bradley.