Vote on Beach Hotel Ban Put Off a Year

The Santa Monica City Council has decided to place two competing initiatives that would ban future beachfront hotels on the ballot of the next regularly scheduled city election in November, 1990.

Supporters of the initiatives had hoped the council would call a special election, even though neither initiative collected enough signatures to force such an election. The council had also considered placing the initiatives on the ballot for the statewide primary next June, but this week it voted unanimously to wait until November because of the savings to the city.

Although the city may save money by delaying the measures for 14 months, the length of the campaign is expected to make it one of the city’s most expensive initiative battles ever.