Santa Monica : Save Our Beach Petition

Save Our Beach Committee last week submitted a petition with more than 10,000 signatures for an initiative that would ban all new beachfront hotels and restaurants larger than 2,000 square feet.

The county registrar-recorder has 30 days to verify the signatures. At least 8,420 are needed to qualify. If the initiative qualifies, the City Council must adopt the initiative or place the issue on the ballot in a special election within 88 to 103 days.

Sharon Gilpin, a spokeswoman for the committee, said 65 people collected the 10,000 signatures over 10 weeks.

The initiative would ban all new hotel construction, including a luxury hotel proposed by restaurateur Michael McCarty on the site of the private Sand and Sea Club on Pacific Coast Highway, and one being planned by Maguire Thomas Partners on Ocean Avenue next to the recently opened Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

Another group is circulating a petition for a competing initiative that would ban new beachfront hotels for three years, but exempt the McCarty and Maguire Thomas projects. It began collecting signatures earlier this month. This initiative would use a portion of beachfront hotel bed taxes to clean up Santa Monica Bay and city parks.

A spokeswoman for the group, Santa Monicans for a Livable Environment, said they expect to collect between 10,000 and 12,000 signatures by Aug. 1.