Local News in Brief : Plans for Beachfront Are Rejected

Hermosa Beach voters won’t get a chance to decide in November what to do with the city’s last vacant beachfront property.

In a special Saturday meeting called to beat a deadline to get on the ballot in November, the City Council rejected all three ballot measures it was considering.

“We will continue with the agonizing process that the city has been dragging through for 25 years with the disposition of the Biltmore Site,” Councilman Roger Creighton said.

The land--a city-owned site between 14th and 15th streets--has been vacant since the Biltmore Hotel was condemned in 1965 and demolished. Five elections have been held on development proposals since 1972.

The three ballot measures under consideration this time involved proposals to develop the land as a hotel, as single-family homes, or as restaurants, bars, offices and other commercial uses.

Councilman Chuck Sheldon said the council decided to reject all three because of problems in the wording of each that could have exposed the city to a “substantial” chance of a lawsuit.

“All the ballot measures had elements that our city attorney . . . and all of us felt had not been finalized in a legal sense,” he said.

Sheldon said it was not clear what the next step will be.