Bradley Veto of Hotel Plan Is Upset by Council, 13-1

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday voted 13 to 1 to override Mayor Tom Bradley’s veto of a permit for construction of a 14-story, 340-room hotel in Woodland Hills.

The overwhelming defeat for Bradley from the council, which has rarely gone against the mayor’s wishes, came after weeks of intense lobbying by the hotel’s developer, Norman Kravetz, and by Robert Voit, a rival developer in the fast-growing Warner Center commercial complex. Voit sought to stop the project.

Matter of Competition

“This is a classic case of one developer not wanting competition from another developer,” Councilman Joel Wachs said in supporting the project. Voit owns property where Marriott Corp. is building a 17-story, 470-room hotel about a mile from the proposed Hilton Hotel site.

Several council members, including a number of usual Bradley allies, said they voted to override the mayor’s veto as a courtesy to Councilwoman Joy Picus, who supported the hotel’s construction in her district.

Bradley was out of town Friday and unavailable for comment.

However, Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said: “We expected to be overridden. There’s a tradition on the council that, if a member representing a district where a development is planned really wants that development, they will defer to their judgment.”

Campaign Donor

Bradley earlier in the week denied an allegation by Picus that the mayor opposed the project because of friendship with Voit, who is one of his biggest campaign contributors in the San Fernando Valley. According to a Times analysis in May of contributions, Warner Center Properties, of which Voit is a managing partner, gave $12,100 to Bradley’s campaign in 1983 and 1984.

In his veto message, Bradley said he is concerned about traffic congestion around Warner Center and about the use for a commercial project of what is designated as industrial land.

In Friday’s council discussion, Picus responded that the hotel, where guests would arrive and depart at all times of day, would generate less traffic during rush hour than an already permitted high-rise office building.