Hermosa Voters Get 3 Options for Beach Site

Hermosa Beach voters will decide in November how to develop the city’s only vacant beachfront property--a subject of controversy for two decades.

The City Council intends to sell the land and use the proceeds to help purchase the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway right of way that bisects the city.

The beachfront property, known as the Biltmore Site, includes seven lots of vacant beachfront land between 14th and 15th streets, as well as the five lots to the east, some of which are developed.

The City Council voted Thursday night to give voters three land-use options for the site, which would then be sold at a public auction. The options are:

Allowing only a hotel and related businesses. This option also calls for selling a nearby public parking lot on Hermosa Avenue. The area’s land use now allows a slightly larger hotel development than would be allowed under the ballot measure.

Designating the site for commercial businesses, including restaurants, bars, offices, retail shops and banks.

Designating the site as single-family residential, which would allow eight houses to be built on the site.

The ballot measure with the highest number of “yes” votes will win, as long as it receives a majority.

The hotel measure would allow a 250-room hotel if the site were combined with private parcels next to it and the parking lot. Developer David Greenwood, who has tried for years to acquire the site for a hotel, holds options to buy the adjacent properties.

If that ballot measure is approved and another buyer obtains the Biltmore Site at auction, a smaller hotel could be built.

The appraised value for the Biltmore Site is $3.7 million under the first two options and $4.55 million under the residential option.

Greenwood and his partners recently offered the city $6 million for the Biltmore Site and the parking lot, which have been jointly appraised at $7.35 million.

Commission OK Needed

The state Coastal Commission would have to approve the rezoning of the property for residential use. City Atty. James P. Lough told the City Council in a June 27 memo that the commission would not approve such a change because it would not serve the public’s coastal access.

Peter M. Douglas, executive director of the commission, also has said it is doubtful that the commission would approve residential use of that property.

The city-owned site has been a source of controversy almost since the former Biltmore Hotel was condemned in 1965 and torn down. Five elections have been held since 1972 on various development proposals, including a high-rise hotel and a time-share condominium project.

Three of the developments were soundly rejected by voters and the most recent two--both of which involved Greenwood--were narrowly defeated.