Hotel, Golf Course Visualized for Rancho Palos Verdes : Orange County Man Pushes for Coastal Resort

This city has begun a lengthy zoning change procedure for a luxury hotel, golf course and residential development on the coast amid warnings by homeowner groups concerned about ocean views, land stability and the project’s impact on existing homes.

The City Council emphasized Tuesday that by initiating an amendment to the city’s General and Coastal plans, it is not committed to approving the change, which has been requested by Orange County developer Barry G. Hon.

Hon is seeking to build a 450-room Ritz-Carlton resort hotel and a 27-hole championship golf course and to provide 159 home lots for sale on nearly 500 coastal acres near the San Pedro boundary. He said he will spend $200 million in land and construction costs and plans a 1991 opening for the resort.

Before the council vote Tuesday, Councilwoman Jacki Bacharach said the council cannot get a specific plan from Hon until it indicates interest in the project by initiating the changes. She and some other council members said the process will be lengthy--Hon said he expects it to take a year--and homeowner sentiments about the project will be significant in the final council decision.

Impressed With Idea

Some association directors in the areas most affected--the Ocean Terrace condominiums, which would be surrounded by the development, and the Seaview homes across Palos Verdes Drive South from the site--said they are impressed by the concept but are not ready to take a position on it.

“It is too emotional, too early in the game,” Ocean Terrace director Robert Agli told the council. Agli said earlier that he is concerned about the impact on the “insulated, quiet community” of 100 units.

Hon said he already has “received very favorable responses” from seven homeowner associations and plans to meet with every association in the city.

But at the council meeting, a spokesman for the Rancho Palos Verdes Council of Homeowners Assns. said that not enough is known about the Hon development and that initiating a zone change could set a precedent for overdevelopment of the coast.

Current zoning on Hon’s site permits homes and a golf course, but Hon needs a zone change from the present three allowable commercial acres to 25 acres to build the hotel, which would be constructed on a sea-view bluff east of Ocean Terrace.

The city staff’s reaction to the development, according to a report, is “favorable, yet guarded,” and there are several issues that “must be closely reviewed,” including land use, traffic and aesthetics, particularly views. The project meets the goals of the General Plan and coastal acts by preserving open space and public access to the coast, the report states.

Several Studies Planned

Detailed planning, traffic, geological and environmental studies will be made by the developer and the city, and there will be public hearings on the proposed zone change before the council and the state Coastal Commission.

The 49-year-old developer--who got his start 25 years ago building corner gas stations and now owns more than 6,000 acres in south Orange County--told a press conference Tuesday that he is “determined to build something that is absolutely stunning and beautiful” and that reserves open space in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Hon said it will follow the Italian architectural style envisioned for the Palos Verdes Peninsula 60 years ago when virtually all of it was owned by financier Frank A. Vanderlip Sr., and said the golf course will be designed by golfer Gary Player. He said the project would produce $2 million a year in bed taxes for the city, which has an operating budget of $9.1 million this fiscal year.

The Ritz-Carlton would be fewer than 4 miles from the site of the defunct Marineland aquatic park, where Arizona developer James G. Monaghan plans to build a resort hotel and conference center with recreation facilities.

Hon said the two developments will complement, not harm, each other because there will be a demand for both. “We’ll have a golf course, they’ll have a golf course,” he said. “People can play at both.”

Monaghan’s local project office declined to comment on the Hon project.

Hurdles to Clear

Aside from the complications of the zone change and planning process itself, Hon said he still has hurdles to clear to get his project off the ground.

One relates to assembling the property--Hon owns only 93 acres of the 455-acre site and is negotiating with six other owners for the rest. (Hon initially announced that the development site, which lies generally south of Palos Verdes Drive South but juts north at the eastern end, was 500 acres. His office on Wednesday revised that to 455 acres.)

Hon said he is confident that he can obtain all of what he needs except 185 acres that his office said is owned by the Zuckerman Building Co. of Santa Monica. “They have not agreed to anything,” he said. He said he is negotiating with the city to buy 125 acres it owns in the project area.

If he fails to get all of the land, Hon said he will have to reduce the size of the golf course to 18 holes and the number of home sites to 50.

A second possible problem is an initiative being circulated for the June ballot that would establish a 24-foot height limit in Rancho Palos Verdes. Hon contends that if this makes the ballot and becomes law, it would kill the hotel.

“I could not do a five-star hotel,” he said. “It would look like a Holiday Inn.” He said he plans a four-story, 50-foot-high hotel patterned after the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel.

Concern Over Lost Views

The Rancho Palos Verdes Council of Homeowners Assns. is sponsoring the 24-foot-limit initiative, which President Naomi Phillips said is the result of “10 years of tremendous concern” about views lost to construction and tree growth. John Arand, first vice president of the group, said that 2,200 people have signed petitions and that he is confident that the necessary 3,000 signatures will be obtained to get it on the ballot.

Phillips contends that Hon’s hotel already is precluded by an existing 30-foot height limit.

City Environmental Services Director Robert Benard takes issue with both Hon and Phillips over the height question.

He contends that the “clear intent” of the code section the initiative attempts to amend is to apply a height limit only to residential structures. Although there is a 30-foot height limit in commercial districts, Benard said, the specific Coastal Plan that applies to the Hon site allows for heights above 30 feet through conditional-use permits or variances. He said the council will hold a workshop Feb. 22 to discuss development standards for the land, including height.

Benard said the proposed height initiative is subject to a variety of legal interpretations and almost certainly will be challenged if it is approved.

Hon said that if the measure reaches the ballot, he will mount a “major educational program to inform people how restrictive it is.”

Hon said he purchased 935 undeveloped acres on the Peninsula a year ago, almost all of it in Rancho Palos Verdes. The Portuguese Bend landslide area was included.

He is selling a 34-acre parcel on Crestridge Road near Crenshaw Boulevard to Marriott Corp. for a senior citizens development.