Coastal Panel OKs Marina Hotel : $45-Million Project Approved Over Staff’s Objections

Over the objections of its staff, the state Coastal Commission unanimously approved Wednesday the construction of a $45-million luxury hotel touted by Los Angeles County as the architectural centerpiece of its 800-acre Marina del Rey development.

The commission, despite concerns that the project could limit access to the marina’s only public beach, granted a development permit to Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. for a 308-room, 14-story project at the northern end of the marina’s main channel.

In granting the permit, the commission concurred with the county, which as landlord of the 800-acre marina owns the hotel site and will receive about $1 million annually in fees after the hotel is completed in early 1990.

A 300-room hotel has been planned for the prime Admiralty Way site almost from the time the marina was created 25 years ago. And county officials have welcomed the first-class Ritz-Carlton project, whose rooms will rent for $200 a night.

“This project is clearly the key architectural feature in the marina,” said Ted Reed, director of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors.

However, Coastal Commission analysts concluded in a strongly worded report that construction of the hotel on what is now a 420-space parking lot for the adjacent Marina City Club could create a parking shortage, forcing club members to use four public lots that serve nearby Marina Beach.

Elimination of the 5.5-acre lot would worsen a severe parking problem in the crowded marina area, the staff said. The project would cause “usurpation of public parking to serve private development,” its report said.

The staff said it was satisfied that the hotel itself had enough parking but that the county had allowed the Marina City Club to lease away parking on the hotel site without proving that the parking was not needed by the club’s 2,600 members.

Planning Department officials in July granted the club a parking permit that waived countywide parking requirements and allowed for a reduction from 2,200 spaces to 1,775. The decision was based on information provided by a Marina City Club consultant, who maintained that the club did not need the 420 extra spaces.

“There’s an important difference between required parking and actual demand or actual need,” Ritz-Carlton spokesman Joel Miller argued before the commission.

Reed also argued that it was far-fetched to conclude, as the commission staff did, that a club parking shortage would affect public parking lots, the closest of which is 400 yards away.

Since the Coastal Commission has no control over the Marina City Club, staffers recommended that the Ritz-Carlton be held responsible for making up a parking shortage at the club if one develops.

The commission, however, decided that the hotel should not be held responsible for its neighbor’s future problems and seemed to agree with Commissioner Charles Warren, who said a parking problem would impose the greatest hardship on club members.

“And I’m not sure we should care (about that),” he said. “I think we may be making too much of this. . . .”

Commissioner Madelyn Glickfeld, who at a previous hearing said she was concerned about the county’s justification for reducing the number of required spaces, voted for approval.

The commission did gain a commitment from the Ritz-Carlton chain to set aside $370,000 for development of a park or other recreation at Marina del Rey.