Builder Out to Break Santa Monica’s Ban on Main St. Hotels

The Santa Monica City Council will conduct a public hearing Tuesday on a proposal to allow hotels on Main Street south of Bay Street.

Proponents see the measure as part of one man’s effort to build a 50-room hotel. Opponents view the proposal as a threat to the Main Street Plan that regulates development in the area.

Under that plan, hotels are not allowed south of Bay Street. However, developer Peter de Krasselis proposing to build a four-story, 50-room bed-and-breakfast inn at 3105-3109 Main St. An earlier plan for a six-story hotel on the site was rejected by the Planning Commission in September.

De Krassel said the Main Street Plan should be amended to allow his bed and breakfast because it would generate less traffic and noise than a four-story office building, which would be permitted under the plan.

Counter Argument

But according to the Ocean Park Community Organization, a neighborhood residents’ organization, adoption of De Krassel’s proposed amendment would encourage other developers to ask for changes that would defeat the purpose of the Main Street Plan.

“While this particular amendment may be one that is popular with some people and has some planning rationale behind it, there is the terrible danger . . . that the next developer will want changes and so on down the line,” said Henry Custis, chairman of the Ocean Park community group. “The plan was developed to forestall that kind of planning.”

But when the public testimony is over on Tuesday, the council may accept a third alternative proposed by the Planning Department. Neither side is in favor of a Planning Department recommendation that the council refer the proposed amendment to a committee composed of neighborhood residents and business interests. The committee would discuss the issue and return in 90 days with a proposal for the council.

‘Not In Favor of Plan’

“We are not in favor of the 90-day plan,” De Krassel said. “We have already met with every faction. It will be close to impossible for them to agree to anything in the next couple of years. In terms of due process, we feel we exceeded any guidelines the city could think of.”

De Krassel said that if the council adopted the Planning Department’s suggestion, he may sell his property to another commercial developer rather than wait for permission to build.

Custis has joined De Krassel in opposition to the Planning Department’s recommendation but for different reasons. He said adoption of the 90-day plan could encourage other developers who want to alter the Main Street Plan to ask the council to allow them to go through the same process.

“Changes in the plan, piecemeal changes, could set a precedent that would encourage other developers to try the same tactics of coming in with projects that are in violation of the zoning code,” Custis said.