LOCAL ELECTIONS : 25 Contested Ballots Could Change Result : Del Mar Voters Reject Hotel Plan by 11 Votes

Del Mar voters Tuesday appeared to have defeated a controversial plan for a downtown hotel. But the final outcome will not be known until the registrar of voters decides on 25 contested ballots today.

The vote was 1,104 to 1,093 against the three-story, 125-unit hotel--an 11-vote margin.

But 25 ballots were not counted because pro-hotel poll watchers felt that they may have been cast by people who were not properly registered.

Late Tuesday night, proponents and opponents alike viewed the vote tally as final and highly unlikely to change. Councilwoman Brooke Eisenberg, an opponent, said the contested votes came from voters more likely to oppose the hotel. She based her assessment on the area the votes came from and on the source of the protest.

The San Diego County registrar of voters will examine each ballot today and decide whether it is valid, Del Mar city officials said Tuesday night.

The project, by developer Jim Watkins, is planned for the northwest corner of Camino Del Mar and 15th Street. About half of the city’s 4,150 voters cast ballots.

The $25-million project on the 5.2-acre site would also include 24 time-share condominiums, a small public park and retail shops.

The project, slated for the last major vacant commercial land in Del Mar, sparked a vigorous campaign battle between the developer and opponents who saw the project as ruining the residential life style of Del Mar.

Close Elections Common

Cliff-hanging elections are nothing new to Del Mar. A commercial project across from the hotel site was approved by a 41-vote margin in February.

As an inducement to voters, the hotel developer has pledged to pay the city $2 million for a new fire station and library, and to make street and drainage improvements.

The site has been vacant since the Hotel Del Mar, a civic institution for 60 years, was torn down in 1969. The hotel, once a prime tourist spot that was particularly popular with the Hollywood and racing crowds, drifted into financial problems and neglect before being closed in the mid-1960s.

During the special election campaign, developer Watkins stressed that the new hotel would return the woodsy ambiance of the Hotel Del Mar, allowing residents and guests to mingle on the tree-lined grounds and share tea beside the hotel fireplace.

Against Influx of Tourists

But opponents, including a group that sponsored a successful measure requiring all downtown commercial projects to be submitted to a public vote, said Watkins’ hotel would bring tourists, traffic, and a thick, awkward set of buildings that would block the ocean view.

The City Council had approved the Watkins proposal by a 3-2 vote. Opponents said the hotel, coupled with a shopping center being built across Camino Del Mar, would leave Del Mar clogged with tourists and stores, such as T-shirt shops and boutiques, to serve them. The city’s General Plan calls for “resident-serving” retail stores.

Watkins responded by noting that the city does not own the property and that development is inevitable.

A Del Mar resident, Watkins owns the 83-room Del Mar Inn and the Stratford Square building on the southwest corner of 15th Street and Camino Del Mar.

His development company, Del Mar-based Winner’s Circle Resorts, is involved in time-share condominium developments in Solana Beach, Carlsbad and Oceanside and is restoring a hotel in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.